Alice Allan, 30

Alice Allan is used to bringing her work global.

Allan, who hails from London but grew up in Connecticut, has been working at CannonDesign since 2021, beginning as a designer and moving up to her current role as a senior associate at the firm.

Throughout her career, Allan has worked on projects in the U.K. and India, and now she’s moving on to work in the U.S.

During her five years (and counting) at CannonDesign, Allan has worked on design projects for a new health science center at St. John’s University in New York City, a new fitness and wellness space at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and a renovation of the Polk Library at the University of Wisconsin’s Oshkosh campus.

At Polk Library, Allan led a $135.5 million repositioning of the 165,000-square-foot facility. She said it was her most challenging project yet.

“From a design perspective, melding a renovated existing building, built in 1967, and trying to make that work for their current needs was a fun challenge,” Allan said.

The projects are also a way for her to best use her design perspective from different countries. “Coming from multiple countries, and working on projects both in those countries and beyond, I’m putting together that puzzle,” she said.

In addition, Allan is heavily involved in CannonDesign’s public interest arm, Open Hand Studio. As a member of Open Hand’s advisory board, she has led the business line’s investment into more scalable, larger impact projects. Those projects include building a new modular hospital in Ukraine, which just opened, as well as supporting Nature on Wheels, a mobile environmental education program operated by parks and nonprofits.

“It’s a big range of projects, which has been really great to be a part of,” Allan said. “I love working on firm engagement, spreading the news, and connecting people to the projects.”