Gensler by Naomi Shinkaiye

Gensler

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Copyright © 2022 by Kaiye Naomi All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. Printed in the United States of America First Printing, 2022 ISBN 0-9359501-0-2 Gensler 123 Mesa Street San Francisco, CA 90210 www.gensler.com

Gensler The One-Firm Firm

TABLE OF

contents 6

The Company

Expansion

Top Clients

Current Leadership

The Founders

The Culture

Philosophy

The Company

Early Days

Gensler is a global architecture, design, and planning firm with locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas. Founded in 1965,the firm serves more than 3,500 active clients in virtually every industry. Guided by determined optimism, we believe the power of design can spark positive change and create a future that promotes equity, resilience, and wellbeing for everyone. We are stronger because of our collaborative spirit, our shared values, our diverse perspectives, and our One-Firm Firm culture. By working as an inter-connected firm, we’re able to make the greatest impact for our global communities as we continue to tackle the world’s challenges. We are a constellation of stars invigorated by our incredible diversity and global reach. Our team of 5,500+ talented design professionals, strate-gists, innovators, and leaders was not achieved in a day. The first official office was started in downtown San Francisco. Initially, Cushman and Wakefield hired Gensler to do the tenant work in the Bank of America Building. That was followed by a meeting with Donald Fisher, a retail entrepreneur who had just opened a blue jeans store in San Francisco and was looking for a draftsman to help him design another. Eventually, Fisher hired Gensler to design that second store. The firm went on to design more than 3,000 stores and most of the offices for the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. As more business rolled in and the firm started

adding people, Gensler turned to a professor of business at the University of San Francisco for help who came in twice a week to teach Gensler and his staff how to run a business. Gensler ensured to seek consultancy at every stage of business growth. The firm grew fairly rapidly with offices opening around the U.S. in the 1970-80s and then overseas in the 1980-90s. By the early 2000s, Gensler’s firm was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. In 2015 the firm completed the Shanghai Tower, which is currently the second tallest building in the world. Now, we have sharpened our climate action focus with fresh research, new design capabilities, and updated priorities to meet our goal of achieving a net zero carbon portfolio by 2030. From exploring the future of the workplace to the evolution of cities, we’re investing in tons of research to give data driven insights and methods that help our clients navigate a changing world. The Gensler Research Institute is a group of researchers committed to raising a deeper understanding of the connection between design, business, and the human experience. Supported by a combination of research grants and external partnerships, we capture insights to identify how design can address issues of global wellness, climate change, and social equity as we build a more resilient future together. Gensler is committed to change across the design industry, and the cities where we live, work, and play. 11

Expansion

Three years after the firm started, we hired 30 people. This included Glen Strasburg, a business professor, to work as a consultant.

The firm won the Bank of Denver project and opened an office in Denver to execute this project. Jim Follet led this assignment.

Then the Houston branch was opened because the firm landed the Pennzoil Oil Company headquarters project.

Cushman & Wakefield in Los Angeles hired Gensler to do tenant development. This led to the opening of the Los Angeles office.

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Everything we are today is attributable to our clients. They encourage us to learn from them, and go with them across the country and then across the globe Art Gensler

Branches

North America Atlanta Austin Baltimore Boston Charlotte Chicago Dallas Denver Detroit Houston La Crosse Las Vegas Los Angeles Miami Minneapolis Morristown, NJ

New York Newport Beach Oakland Philadelphia Phoenix Portland Raleigh San Antonio San Diego San Francisco San Jose Seattle Tampa Toronto Vancouver Washington, D.C

Latin America Bogotá Mexico City San José, Costa Rica

Asia Pacific

Europe

Bangalore Bangkok Singapore Sydney Tokyo

Birmingham London Munich Paris

Greater China

Middle East

Beijing Hong Kong Shanghai

Abu Dhabi Dubai

Top Clients

CO-CEO

Diane Hoskins Diane is one of two Gensler co-CEOs whose collaborative leadership is fundamental to setting the company apart as a leading design firm. For her innovative leadership, Diane, along with CoCEO Andy Cohen, ranks on Business Insider’s elite “Creators” list, a who’s who of the world’s 100 top creative visionaries. As a hands-on leader, Diane oversees Gensler’s global platform and its day-to-day operations with some 6,000 people networked across 50 offices, serving clients in more than 120 countries. Diane is focused on Gensler’s global talent strategies, performance, and organizational development to ensure that we serve our clients with the world’s top talent. She is the catalyst for Gensler’s Research program, for which Diane is committed to delivering value to clients through strategies and innovations like Gensler’s Workplace Performance Index® (WPI). A registered architect, she graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and holds an MBA from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA. Diane received an Outstanding Impact Award from the Council of Real Estate Women and is both a Regent of the American Architectural Foundation and a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects. Her insights have appeared in the Financial Times, Harvard Business Review, the Washington Post, and The Economist; and she was a featured speaker at Bloomberg Businessweek’s CEO Conference. In her role, Diane serves as a key contributor by her peers. 20

CO-CEO

Andy Cohen Andy is one of two co-CEOs of Gensler, the world’s top architecture and design firm. He has worked with Gensler for 40 years. Since 2005, Andy and Co-CEO Diane Hoskins, have exemplified collaborative leadership, overseeing both the long-term strategy and day-to-day operations of the global practice known for its award-winning design innovation and research. Under their guidance, Gensler has grown to become the largest in the field, with 6,000 people networked across 50 offices. With expertise in four sectors and 28 practice areas, the firm’s diverse work ranges from aviation, urban design, and sports stadiums to office, hospitality, life sciences, entertainment, and more. Award-winning projects such as the Shanghai Tower, the Banc of California Stadium, and airports in major cities across the globe showcase the breadth and scale of Gensler’s industry-leading practice. He is a registered architect in 41 states and 3 Canadian provinces, Andy is a champion of the power of design to enhance and enrich the human experience. In 2021, he was named to Business Insider’s list of “100 People Transforming Business,” which honors 100 business leaders who are sparking trends, and tackling global challenges. Andy works as a dynamic leader, mentoring and advising Gensler’s teams and ensuring the firm’s vision to create a better world through the power of design. An advocate for resilience, and climate action, he is in charge for global design innovation initiatives. 21

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The Founders

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Art Gensler

Gensler was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1935. An only child, he grew up in West Hartford, Conn., and graduated from high school in Garden City, Long Island. His mother worked for the phone company. His father, known as “Slats”—no one called him by his first name, Millard, or Arthur, for that matter—sold ceiling tiles for Armstrong Cork Co. “He was one of the best architectural sales reps ever,” Gensler says of his father. “He was all about service to the client.” Years down the road that life lesson would shape the young man’s own business philosophy. Gensler got his BArch in 1958. Upon graduating, he fulfilled his ROTC obligation as a six-month wonder in the Army Corps of Engineers. Then followed several years of job-hopping—in New York, with Shreve, Lamb and Harmon (architects of the Empire State Building), and in Kingston, Jamaica, with Norman and Dawbarn. After two years in Jamaica, his friend, Peter Flack, recommended him for a job runn-ing the New York office of architect Albert Sigal, who was designing schools that also served as fallout shelters. When the school funding dried up, Gensler decided to relocate to San Francisco with Sigal. In 1962, with three sons in tow (a fourth would come along later), he and Drue headed west, settling in the bayside town of Tiburon, in Marin County. The new job turned out to be shortlived, so Gensler moved over to Wurster, Bernardi & Emmons, where he directed the development of design standards for the Bay Area Rapid Transit

system. Through a friend from Cornell, he was able to start his own firm. Cushman and Wakefield hired Gensler to do the tenant work in the Bank of America Building. That was followed by a chance meeting with Donald Fisher, a retail entrepreneur who had just opened a blue jeans store in San Francisco and was looking for a draftsman to help him design another. “Eventually, he hired us to design that second store,” says Gensler. The firm went on to design more than 3,000 stores and most of the offices for the Gap, Old Navy, and Banana Republic. As more business rolled in and the firm started adding people, Gensler turned to a professor of business at the University of San Francisco for help. The professor came in twice a week to teach Gensler and his staff how to run a business. Gensler ensured to seek consultancy at every stage of his business growth. The firm grew fairly rapidly with offices opening around the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s. Then grew even more overseas in the 1990s. By the early 2000s, Gensler’s firm was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. After running the largest architecture firm in the world for more than four decades, Art Gensler was content with spending his last years as a consultant for the firm and not in an active role. However, his standard of design lives on in the work and legacy he left behind. Art Gensler played a significant role in establishing the firm however he did not start the firm alone. 25

Rue Gensler

Drue Gensler managed the business aspects of the firm while raising the couple’s four sons, David, Rob, Ken, and Douglas. She remained very active with the firm as it grew and was a longtime member of the Gensler board of directors. Drue served as a role model to many, and, according to Art, always encouraged him to hire the best talent. A pioneering businesswoman and entrepreneur, Drue mentored other women in the firm and encouraged them to take on leadership roles. Born Drucilla Cortell, she was a 1953 graduate of Barnard School for Girls and a 1957 graduate of Middlebury College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. She married Art Gensler in 1957, and, together, they moved from New York to San Francisco in 1962. Drue Gensler was a champion for equal rights for women, working with several nonprofits—including the Initiative to Educate Afghan Women—as a fundraiser, board member, acting director, committee chair, and board chair. She served two terms on the Middlebury College Board of Trustees from 1994 to 2004. When Middlebury College honored both Drue and Art with honorary doctor of humane letters degrees in 2008, the college wrote: “Drue Gensler has championed equal rights for women in her home of Marin County, California, where she has served in a number of volunteer roles, including as chairwoman of the Marin Commission on the Status of Women. At College, she helped establish, and later served as an advisor to, the 26

May Belle Chellis Women’s Resource Center.” Drue was active in the early women’s movement and was the co-founder and a board member of The Initiative To Educate Afghan Women, which offers Afghani women an opportunity to achieve undergraduate degrees in the U.S. and return home with new tools to contribute to their communities. Drue was passionate about the arts, education and philanthropy. She served as a member of the Middlebury College of Board of Trustees and Marin Theatre Company, and was active in the United Way of the Bay Area and Marin County, Buck Center for Research on Aging and the YWCA of San Francisco and Marin. Drue was also a driving force behind the creation of the May Belle Chellis Women’s Center. The Program in Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Middlebury College. The school called Drue “a lifelong champion for the rights of women” and “role model to all.” Drue’s most important legacy is her and Art’s family — sons David, Robert, Ken and Doug, and their 10 children. She was an avid traveler, and her passion for life was infectious. Drue’s sense of humor and fun was magnetic. In 2012, Art and Drue Gensler donated $5 million to the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, a biomedical research institute focused on aging and agerelated disease. The Buck Institute’s building is now named the Arthur & Drue Gensler Building. Drucilla “Drue” Gensler, who cofounded the global firm Gensler with her husband.

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Drue Gensler has championed equal rights for women in her home of Marin County, California, she has served in a number of volunteer roles, including as chairwoman of the Marin Commission on the Status of Women.

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The Culture

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Company Culture

The One-Firm Firm Gensler has a one-firm mindset and a family culture that allows collaboration to thrive and scale to be possible. The firm adopts a constellation of stars approach instead of relying on one star designer. This allows clients to get better value and services. A constellation of stars contains many bright stars regardless of how bright one may shine. This apporach also makes it easier for clients to work with us. It removes friction and attracts repeat work. Lastly, it builds resiliency into the firm. The firm has survived this long because every designer is a talented team player. A cinstellation of stars us more likely to generate fresh ideas, stand strong during difficult times, and house an institutional memory that can help the firm grow from generation to generation.

Our Family

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Company Culture

Family

Trust

Firm as Family is a unifying concept that brings together many of the principles. This is the foundation of all interpersonal relationships within the firm.

Putting all firm dealings in the context of building trust, internally and with clients, is key the to success. That sets employees up to collaborate openly and ethically.

Collaboration

Efficiency

Leadership is about smart decision making regardless of the origin of the idea. This encourages collaboration among employees. Many skilled heads are better than 1 or 2.

Our clients are served with efficiency. Our employees seek ways to produce value in a costeffective manner. It is important to always start the project right.

Drive

Innovation

Drive comes from deep within a person. Driven individuals are passionate; they love to produce results, welcome responsibility and have a strong will to win.

We spot oncoming trends and find a way to position the firm to compete. Careful experimentation is supported to solve challenges and stay ahead of the curve.

Our Family

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Design Philosophy

Most people believe design is about how something looks on the outside. In other words, they think it is about style and aesthetics. In fact, this is how most designers think. While we appreciate style, we believe that design should be done from the inside out. An inside view concentrates on making sure things work and are easy to understand for the end users—an approach that applies to all service professions. The challenge for the end user is that they have to live with whatever the service provider has generated. If it looks good, but the client is unable to understand it and implement it, the service provider has failed the client by approaching the problem from the outside in. Inside out design prioritises function over form. We first ensure the building has the best suited design layout to serve its users. By rationalising the interiors to work better for its occupants, one can design an appropriate outward look.

Our Legacy

The Gensler Legacy is one that outlives its founders. It stands as the biggest Architecture firm in the United States of America. The global architecture, design, and planning firm with 50 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, and the Americas was founded in 1965 and serves more than 3,500 active clients in virtually every industry. Guided by determined optimism, the firm believes the power of design can spark positive change and create a future that promotes equity, and wellbeing for everyone.

1.2 Billion

6000+

Firm on the 2022 Interior Design Top 100 Giants list.

Dollars in Revenue

Employees

Locations Worldwide

100s

3500+

Of awards and recognition

Clients

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