Gensler is a global design firm that partners with clients to make cities more livable, work smarter and leisure more engaging. With more than 2,300 active clients, Gensler work across the global economy. Their clients are remarkably diverse, and the Gensler’s philosophy is help them grow, sustain and transform: whatever it takes to embrace their future. 3,800 professionals networked across 44 locations believe quality design can transform organizations and improve people’s lives.Since 1965, they have helped clients achieve measurable business and organizational goals, delivering projects as large as a city and as small as a task light for an individual desk. Gensler is organized to support clients at every stage of the design cycle, from initial strategy and design planning through implementation and management. During the last year, Gensler worked in 90 countries with 2,145 clients!
Biography: the man before the myth
Arthur Gensler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. He attended Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Upon graduation, he worked for architecture firms in New York and Jamaica. After moving with his wife Drue to California in the early 1960s, Gensler worked for a few architectural firms, including Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons. While at Wurster, he played a lead role establishing the design standards for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, then under construction. In 1965, Gensler opened his firm by pioneering architectural interiors for newly constructed office buildings, including the Alcoa Building (1967) and the Bank of America Building (1969), both in San Francisco. His firm grew fairly rapidly with offices opening around the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s and then overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. By the early 2000s, Gensler’s firm was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. In 2015 the firm is expected to complete the Shanghai Tower, currently the second tallest building in the world.
Background and Realizations – Best Projects
Hear a lit more of Arthur Gensler inspiration behind his decision to establish his own architecture firm in 1965. A good topic discussed about the transform of architectural practice and technologies, the development of green building standards, and th globalization of professional services firms and so on.
“I’m pretty good observer of what goes on” He says.
© 2015 The Regents of the University of California.
During the past years we could see notable projects from Gensler.
Community Hospital @ Yishun
Singapore is seeking to care for one of Asia’s fastest-aging populations; and the Community Hospital @ Yishun aims to serve it with the best in “slow medicine,” which harnesses technology without being driven by it. Collaborating with HDR, Gensler’s design competition solution envisioned a building with spatial organization connecting patient need to hospital services.
RECOGNITION
- CONTRACT MAGAZINE2012 Healthcare Environment Award
The Alexander Indianapolis, Indiana
The Alexander raises the bar when it comes to an authentic, guest-focused lodging experience. With 209 guest and extended stay rooms, the building also features a restaurant and bar, a lobby large enough to house events, fitness and conference centers and outdoor meeting areas.
RECOGNITION
Facebook Headquarters Menlo Park, California
Facebook’s new 1+ million-square-foot corporate campus mirrors the company’s philosophy: It’s open, mobile, socially connected, dimensionally aware, culturally relevant and personally sustaining. What was once a collection of discrete buildings in an early ’90s office park is now a dense and dynamic urban environment. Appearing as a work-in-progress, with plywood ceilings, concrete floors and shop lighting, the headquarters meets a key goal of communicating Facebook’s upstart, scrappy, iterative and creative culture.
The Most Iconic Projects – Shangai Rising
Video © Gensler
Gensler won the Shanghai Tower project back in 2008. Every day since then the project team—led by Jun Xia from our Shanghai office but comprised of over 200 people from across the firm—has worked tirelessly to solve the many challenges inherent in building a supertall building. Arthur says that they have learned a lot along the way. From the beginning, tehy was committed to assembling the best and brightest minds from across our 46 offices for this project, and the resulting building is tangible evidence of what collaborative efforts can yield.
Image © Gensler
Effective leadership and great design have been key throughout. Jun, a Gensler principal and a Shanghai native was the visionary behind the Shanghai Tower and he has lead the project from the beginning. The distinctive spiral design concept for the Tower fuses Jun’s deep cultural understanding of Shanghai and China with his 20+ years of global architectural experience as a design leader on Gensler projects around the world.
Interesting Facts about Arthur Gensler
When he started his company, he knew a lot about architecture but very little about running a business. In 2015, he wrote Art’s Principles to offer today’s entrepreneurs the business insights he wishes someone had given him when he was first starting out.
Art’s Principles reveals the blueprint behind one of the most successful professional services firms, giving career-minded individuals the tools they need to excel in business. The book covers the essentials of leadership, talent acquisition and operations, while outlining the creative strategies that propelled a small business into one of the largest and most admired in its industry. This guidebook is full of well-tested ideas that are applicable to someone running a small, medium or large professional firm — or running any project where people, profit and customers matter.
All Creators Together – Gensler Boston celebrates 21 years of amazing partnerships
“We Promote Good Design by celebrating it”
Design excellence is a vital part of Gensler’s culture. So they put it in the spotlight – broadcasting it to our offices across the globe – during the annual gathering of the Principals, which tehy held in Boston, in the offices it recently redesigned for that law firm (featured below). The event celebrated the many clients and friends who’ve contributed to Gensler’s local success over the years.
Gensler’s recent collaboration with the firm began with an evaluation to relocate or stay within the offices we originally redesigned. Deciding to remain in its existing space, the firm undertook a full renovation of its 12 downtown floors.
From visioning to construction administration, Gensler created an environment that reflects the law firm’s mission and values. The design incorporates the latest in legal workplace trends, with flexible space for focused and collaborative work.
Top Projects Gallery