A method, system, and computer usable program product for an improved object placement in integrated circuit design are provided in the illustrative embodiments. The IC design includes cells, the cells including electronic components, wires, and pins defined for interconnections of the IC. An initial placement corresponding to the design is received. A characteristic of the initial placement is estimated, which may include congestion, pin density, or both in an area of the initial placement. A transformation is performed on a part of the initial placement including the area to improve the characteristic. If the characteristic has improved in the transformed placement, a final placement corresponding to the transformed placement is produced. The transformation may be any combination of resizing an object, weighting a connection, clustering a plurality of objects, shortening of a route taken by a wire, and straightening a bend in a wire in the initial placement.