AIA Florida honors The Warehouse with Design Award

AIA Florida has honored 171 Armour “The Warehouse” with an AIA Florida Citation Award of Excellence for Renovations and Additions!

The 2025 Design Awards were juried by a panel of experts based in Athens, Greece.

“It was my honor to bring the work of our AIA Florida members to Athens, Greece — a city internationally recognized as the cradle of Western architecture. Sharing our members’ innovative and inspiring projects in a place deeply rooted in architectural tradition was an unforgettable experience. The Greek jury, comprised of distinguished architects and educators, spent several days reviewing the submissions and thoughtfully considering each project.”

— Rhonda Hammond, AIA 2025 Design Awards Chair & AIA Florida Immediate Past President

Recipients will be honored during AIA Florida’s 2025 Design and Honors Awards presentation on Saturday, August 2. This special occasion is regarded as the culminating event of AIA Florida’s 2025 Annual Convention and Trade Show being held this year at the JW Marriott Tampa Water Street in Tampa, FL.

A complete list of AIA Florida Design Award Recipients is available HERE.

Register to attend the 2025 AIA Florida Convention & Trade Show, and Purchase Tickets to the Awards Gala HERE.

Learn more about Cognitive Design’s innovative thinking and applied research that led to this project’s recognition HERE.

Pensacola NewsRadio 92.3's Andrew McKay talks healthy design with Matt Finn

NewsRadio 92.3 host Andrew McKay talks with Cognitive Design Founder Matt Finn on how architecture shapes our everyday lives. Finn discusses how thoughtful design - whether in homes, businesses, or healthcare spaces - can boost comfort, health, and connection. Finn also shares a few practical tips for improving your personal home environment to facilitate a sense of peace and calm. Read a transcript or listen to a recording the conversation for a deeper dive into how the spaces around us impact our lives.

The Georgia Trust awards The Blair-Rutland Building

The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation’s Excellence in Rehabilitation Awards recognize projects that make compatible use of a building through repair, alterations, or additions while preserving features of the property that convey its historic value.

Adding to it’s accolades by receiving a prestigious 2025 Excellence in Rehabilitation Award, this 1939 Streamline Moderne building is one of two surviving Art Deco structures in Decatur. Listed in the National Register of Historic Places, it represents the distinct modern design for commercial buildings coming out of the era. The team completed a host of interior and exterior work, including stabilizing the foundation and removing asbestos-containing floor tiles. Additionally, windows and ceilings were repaired or replaced in-kind. Now functioning as a collaborative office space, the building retains its original purpose and iconic features, reflecting Decatur’s architectural and commercial heritage.

Learn more about The Blair Building’s history, design, and incredible team led by Cultural Developer and Preservationist Gene Kansas HERE.

Cognitive Design's Historic Preservation wins AIA Award!

AIA Florida Northwest recognized the Historic and Cultural Preservation of The Blair Building - a memorable neighborhood office in Decatur, GA.

Earning a 2024 Merit Award for Historic Preservation/Restoration, the jury praised the retention of the building’s character while modernizing it.

Cognitive Design served as the architect of a recent HTC-qualified improvements, and accepted the award on behalf of an incredible team that all deserve some credit! This project was led by Cultural Developer & Preservationist Gene Kansas | Commercial Real Estate, and the complete design team included talent from Studio Wyeth, Smith Hanes Studio, Howard Design Studio, Family Bros., and DUST!

MA! 2024 Atlanta Design Festival to feature The Blair Building & Clarity Fitness

Learn more about ADF and buy tickets:
MA! Atlanta Design Festival September 28th - October 6th 2024

Atlanta Design Festival is a platform to celebrate, convene, & connect creative industries. The festival invites the brightest creative leaders and organizations to host installations, exhibitions, design and architecture tours, film screenings, conference panels, and more, to showcase Atlanta as a global powerhouse and innovator of ideas.

Since 2007, Atlanta Design Festival has presented a series of architecture tours providing exclusive access to the best residential, commercial, and contract design in the city, and introducing the latest trends in sustainable materials, architectural systems, and interior design to a captive audience of decision-makers and the general public.

Tours of both projects will be on October 5th & 6th, 2024.

More info about The Blair Building’s memorable design (on cognitive.design) & it’s role as a neighborhood office (where you can read about renting an office)

More info about Clarity Fitness’s design for holistic health (on cognitive.design) & it’s role as a body positive gym (where you can learn about joining their membership)

Human health, applied research, and evaluations – what’s it all about?

Founder Matthew Finn spoke in the beautiful Mediterranean Ballroom at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL as part of the 2024 AIA Florida Convention and Trade Show.

The session’s capacity crowd of Florida Architects left with skills, tools, and possibly a new perspective about how to orient a project’s decisions and stakeholders around a concise set of goals in a way that promotes human health, is supported by research, and adds value to their work.

Cognitive Design featured in AIA Florida/Caribbean ARCHITECT magazine

We’re excited to see two of our award-winning projects featured in an article by Martin Moeller, Jr., Assoc. AIA in the Spring 2024 issue of Florida/Caribbean ARCHITECT magazine, the official journal of the Florida Association of the American Institute of Architects. This issue features projects that epitomize transformation. Whether it’s how an interior is transformed to better serve customers or a building renovated to create an efficient workspace, architects create the spaces where we live, work, play and experience our lives.

Read the full issue HERE and send us a note if you’d like to talk about collaborating on a current or future project. Thanks!

Matt Finn to speak at the 2024 AIA Florida Convention

Just announced: Founder Matt Finn will share details and the process behind Cognitive Design’s approach to creating Architecture for Health at the 2024 AIA Florida Convention & Trade Show held at The Breakers in Palm Beach, FL.

Finn’s session is titled Human Health, Applied Research and Evaluations – What’s it All About? and will be on Friday, July 19 at 11:15 AM.

Health is the zeitgeist. Understanding how the built environment influences human health and behavior is more important than ever. This workshop will equip you to harness research from the fields of psychology, neuroscience, and sociology to create architecture for health. You’ll learn how to set behavioral and health-promoting goals, apply interdisciplinary research, and utilize pre-design and post-occupancy evaluations for unique insights. Join us to gain practical skills for impactful design solutions and align your voice with the prevailing health-conscious culture of today.

Additional information: 2024 AIA Florida Convention and Trade Show.

Cognitive Design wins two AIA Awards!

We're excited to announce a double win for Cognitive Design’s innovative design approach - AIA Florida Northwest just recognized Clarity and 171 Armour with awards! We’re thankful for this recognition because it is a testament to the real-world impact of our interdisciplinary research, which can now be part of your project through our new consultancy Principles.

171 Armour Award Video

Clarity Award Video

AIA Honors & Awards highlights best practices and recognizes exemplary projects, engages and supports members in the diverse practice of the profession, and opens opportunities to collaborate among peers and colleagues in the built environment.

171 Armour Drive project earned the Honor Award for Renovations/Additions for its transformation of an outdated mid-century industrial building into a modern, elegant, and health-promoting industrial facility that improves operational efficiency, fosters creative thinking & innovation, and facilitates social community. 

Clarity Fitness received a Special Jury Recognition for Applied Research for its innovative and inclusive approach to Georgia’s first body-positive gym, which creates an energizing, supportive, and comfortable environment for exercising – ask us how we know (spoiler alert: Post Occupancy Evaluation). 

Cognitive Design launches Principles, an Interdisciplinary Research Consultancy

Over the years, we’ve had the good fortune of designing projects for many happy clients, and also consulting for think tanks, talented designers, and developers. We love these collaborations and seeing where our research can take a project! Building on these successes, we've launched Principles.

What is Principles?

Principles is a consultancy by Cognitive Design that brings interdisciplinary research to your project. We support Architects, Interior Designers, and Developers with specialized knowledge that takes their designs to the next level.

Principles delivers actionable insights from the fields of psychology, social sciences, and beyond in a way that adds intentionality, inspires creative design solutions, builds consensus, and optimizes the allocation of resources. In other words, Principles adds Cognitive Design’s award-winning applied research to your project!

We are excited because…

One of the best things about Principles is that we can serve a lot more people and work with designers and developers anywhere in the world.

If you're interested in collaborating on your projects or know someone who could benefit from our support, please let us know. We're also looking to engage more on professional social media platforms, so if you have a favorite group here on LinkedIn or another place where nerdy folks like us hang out, please point us in that direction.

Join us!

We’re on a mission to create buildings, neighborhoods, and cities that unlock human potential and empower people to thrive!

Visit our website: www.principles.consulting

Follow us on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/principles-cd

Atlanta Business Chronicle: Atlanta manufacturer Haivision MCS spent millions customizing a new warehouse. It paid off.

Atlanta Business Chronicle reporter Savannah Sicurella talks with Matt Finn, client David Minnix of Haivision MCS (formerly CineMassive), and developer Ted Bradford of Gene Kansas Commercial Real Estate about the cultural development of Haivision’s new smart and healthy industrial facility in Atlanta.

Haivision MCS’ mid-century industrial building embodies the determined and purposeful optimism of the 1950s and has been reimagined by Cognitive Design for the 21st century. In a discrete and secure in-town industrial facility, referred to as The Warehouse, evidence-based design, biophilic design, and organizational psychology were leveraged to…

Learn more about The Warehouse.

Read the full article Atlanta manufacturer Haivision MCS spent millions customizing a new warehouse. It paid off. (subscription required).

Medium's Authority Magazine: Majd Gharib on Happiness and Joy During Turbulent Times

Yitzi Weiner, a "Positive" Influencer and Editor In Chief of Authority Magazine, interviews Research & Design Consultant Majd Gharib as part of his series on how to live with Joie De Vivre, even when it feels like the whole world is pulling you down. This long-form and personal interview touches on subjects including Gharib’s childhood, how war affected him and his family, and 5 things he needs to live with more joy and happiness in life, particularly during turbulent times.

Read the full interview on Medium’s Authority Magazine.

Housing for Whole Health: Individualized Health-Promoting Residential Design

As part of LivABLE Canada’s 2021 Design Summit, Cognitive Design Architect Matt Finn, Cognitive Design Consultant Meldrena Chapin, and Altro’s Senior Living expert Susan Drew discuss trends in aging, socioeconomics, and care provisions driving the need for supportive home design and living in place strategies as options for where people live late in life. They explored the importance of socialization and interpersonal connection in facilitating good health as well as the relationship between physical and mental health. Their discussion centered on creative ways to create freedom of choice in residential design that facilitates health for individuals of all ages, and abilities, to live a full and meaningful life, regardless of their health status.

Date & Time: Thursday, October 28th @ 10:15 AM (EST)
Location: Virtual (Trade Only, Registration Required)

About LivABLE Design Summit: The LivABLE Design Summit is a 3 day virtual B2B trade event. Focused on the residential sector, we provide education on ageless living, accessibility, and wellness to support developers, architects, designers, builders, and renovators that are interested in solutions that meet the needs of all building users. Knowledge Matters. Join our global community today.

The 2021 LivABLE Design Summit is 27-29 October. For additional information, please visit livablecanada.com/summit.

The Importance of Social Community Design: Q&A with Architect Matt Finn and Cultural Developer Gene Kansas

As part of the Atlanta Design Festival, join Cognitive Design Architect Matt Finn and Cultural Developer Gene Kansas for an engaging conversation about the importance of social community. Citizens, real estate developers, and designers can work together to ensure this vital aspect of our lives is thriving in a changing world.

Matt and Gene will discuss their work to be part of a flourishing and supportive community on Auburn Avenue in downtown Atlanta, where this conversation will occur. The pair will also discuss their recent work promoting community on the Armour/Ottley loop, in suburban and rural areas, healthcare settings, and even while exercising.

This in-person event is free and open to the public, RSVP is not required.

Date & Time: October 4th at 6:00 pm
Location: Constellations 135 Auburn Ave NE, 2nd Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303

About ADF: The annual Atlanta Design Festival, which includes the MA! Architecture Tours, is an open platform, ideal for fostering international dialogue on the economic and social impact of design. It provides connection, the free exchange of knowledge, design thinking and community building. Each year the Festival brings together independent designers, established brands, young talent, international speakers from academia, NGOs and government entities, exhibitions, installations and architecture tours – all centered on the economic and societal impact of design. We define this activity as ‘the design economy’ – the direct and indirect value created by those who use design in a wide variety of industries.

The 2021 Atlanta Design Festival is 2-10 October. For additional information, please visit atlantadesignfestival.net.

It's Time for Mental Health & Architecture! at 2021 AIA ASPIRE Conference

Hosted by the American Institute of Architects South Atlantic Region, Cognitive Design’s Founder Matthew Finn participates in a two-part TALK + CHAT entitled It’s Time for Mental Health & Architecture! as part of the 2021 ASPIRE Conference.

Panelists Matt Finn, Emily Schickner, Amy Rosen, Stephen Parker, and Suman Sorg discuss empowering people and designing solutions that facilitate good health.

Amongst other topics, Matt presents the findings of an experiential Post-Occupancy Evaluation of Clarity Fitness and a follow-up to Building Community, a white paper on the relationship between social isolation and the built environment.

To request information on these topics, please contact hello@cognitive.design.

ASPIRE attendees can access a recording of this session through the ASPIRE portal.

Grim Drive Podcast Episode 28: Interview with Matt Finn

In this episode of the Grim Drive Podcast, which explores mental health through the lens of professional sports and athletes, we talk about the role of environmental design with Matt Finn, Architect + Social Entrepreneur.

Pro athletes come forward more and more with stories about their mental health journey, what they have endured, and how they managed to push through. This only started recently and reflects a mental health stigma that continues to be reduced.

About Grim Drive: co-hosts Jotham Busfield, LICSW, and Jon Cunha, LMHC, are professional licensed therapists and experts on mental health, who value mental fitness and the role athletics can play in total health. Combining over 20 years of experience, Jon and Jotham co-own Riser+Tread, a Coaching + Counseling company with three locations in Greater Boston and a focus on male mental health to help guys “Step Up + Move Forward.”

Listen to Episode 38: Interview with Matt Finn, Architect on YouTube

Principles by Cognitive Design

Principles by Cognitive Design is dedicated to improving access to health-promoting design.

Principles will deliver big ideas (derived from Cognitive Design’s interdisciplinary research, of course!) about Architecture for Health. Our goal is to get as many people as possible into thoughtful design.

Through strategic partnerships and creating resources, such as design guidelines, we will bring thoughtful ideas and solutions to countless people, including many who are not otherwise served by the professional design community.

We’ve chosen to begin with an important issue: where people live late in life. The Substantial Home thoughtfully considers many aspects of life, including those seen and unseen. To discuss participating in the creation of this important resource, please Download the Introduction and contact Matthew Finn and Meldrena Chapin.

CineMassive at 171 Armour featured in Centering Health Equity beta Framework

Cognitive Design is proud to have contributed to the development of Centering Health Equity: An Open Source, beta Framework for Built Environment Projects. Additionally, one of our projects, The Warehouse (also known as CineMassive at 171 Armour), is featured as a case study for its service to intown industrial workers and the local community through improved urban connectivity.

To learn more, please visit centeringequity.org.

About CHE: Centering Health Equity is a project to support stronger communities and business success through health equity in the built environment. It envisions a radical shift toward inclusion across the multi-sector fields that influence the design, delivery, and operation of real estate and public sector projects.

Centering Health Equity is published by Mithun and the USGBC’s Green Health Partnership.

NerdWallet: 7 Work-From-Home Essentials

NerdWallet authority in money matters Hal M. Bundrick, CFP, talks with Matt Finn about working from home. This practical and informative article covers embracing daily rituals and making your workplace comfortable and distraction-free. The guiding principles discussed for a more productive work environment include Ergonomics, Focused Attention, and Food & Drink.

Read the full story on NerdWallet

Download a PDF of the article 7 Work-From-Home Essentials

AIA Georgia virtual Mental Health + Architecture Panel Discussion

Hosted by AIA Georgia, Cognitive Design’s Founder Matthew Finn participated in the Mental Health + Architecture panel discussion on Wednesday, March 31st, 2021.

The conversation addressed how architecture and design have an impact on personal and social mental health. This is important for all architects to understand, as it is critical to the design of our buildings, neighborhoods, and cities.

Panelists provided perspective on design and mental health with a backdrop of their work and aid attendees in ways to incorporate mental health into design.

A recording of the panel discussion is available for on-demand streaming HERE.