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About Us
As architects, designers, planners and consultants, we partner with our clients on some 3,000 projects every year. These projects can be as small as a wine label or as large as a new urban district. With 2,000+ professionals networked across more than 30 locations, we serve our clients as trusted advisors, combining localized expertise with global perspective wherever new opportunities arise. Our work reflects an enduring commitment to sustainability and the belief that design is one of the most powerful strategic tools for securing lasting competitive advantage.
Download Gensler's Fact Sheet (pdf) for more information regarding the the services we provide, markets we support, our locations and our leadership.
Download "Design Update: The Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott at L.A. LIVE" (pdf) to learn how L.A.'s sports-entertainment district gets its landmark.
To initiate a $1.3 billion airport modernization program, Gensler composed a master plan encompassing a new Terminal B and Concourse, major upgrades of existing terminal space, new parking facilities and an improved roadway system. Having conducted numerous studies with community groups to understand traveler dynamics, Gensler, in collaboration with Steinberg Architects, also created the master designs for the Terminal B and Concourse components, establishing a vision for the airport as iconic gateway to the city of San Jose and Silicon Valley. The 1,600-foot-long, LEED-NC® v. 2.1 Silver-rated building exploits advanced design methods and building materials to project an appearance that embodies the region's innovative and environmentally-conscious spirit.
Dedicated to the understanding and protection of the world's rivers and estuaries, the Beacon Institute is certified as a LEED® Platinum center for science and education. "Building One," the first phase of the multi-phase project, functions as a living laboratory for testing and implementing transformational sustainability strategies. The facility also supports exhibitions about the center, global research and remote learning. An existing 4,000-square-foot, 19th-century masonry structure has been re-used and expanded to house the institute's programs.
Chicago's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community now has a home in the Center on Halsted. Designed by Gensler as a visible symbol of LGBT pride, this environmentally sustainable civic place invigorates its North Side neighborhood. Seventy-five percent of the total façade is clear glass, exposing the vibrant inner workings of the Center and enlivening the streetscape. Certified LEED® Silver, the Center includes an entertainment venue, a grocery store, café, technology center, gymnasium, theater, public roof garden, offices for community service partners and other unique gathering spaces.
The new LEED® Gold Department of Homeland Security facility in Omaha balances security with the comfort and well-being of its users. Gensler embedded security equipment in the building's millwork, permitting a glass façade and more open appearance. Light shelves and skylights further maximize the daylight introduced by the façade. The one-story building wraps around a central, secure open-air courtyard, bringing light to the inner workspaces and providing a private outdoor break area for employees.
HP called on Gensler to help develop a new, globally applicable workplace planning approach that supports their mobile culture. The "HP Guidebook" resulted from a series of intense collaborative activities delivered in short order, including a five-day charette with HP global workplace leaders and user input collected from worldwide locations delivered through Web-based photo essays. The guidelines advocate a new workplace paradigm — "the whole floor is my workplace" — and create targeted solutions for teaming, learning, heads-down and confidential work, while advancing the HP culture and the company's commitment to sustainability.
This super-tall, 632-meter tower will be sited in the heart of Shanghai’s Lujiazui Finance and Trade Zone, adjacent the Jin Mao Tower and Shanghai World Financial Center. As the skyline's most prominent icon, the tower’s transparent, spiral form will showcase cutting-edge sustainable strategies and public spaces that set new standards for green community. Within 121 stories, Shanghai Tower will house Class-A office space, entertainment venues, retail, a conference center, a luxury hotel and cultural amenity spaces. The tower will be registered for a high level of building certification from the China Green Building Committee and the U.S. Green Building Council.
Follow Shanghai Tower's construction progress at the GenslerOn blog.
The European headquarters of furniture designer and manufacturer Herman Miller combines office and showroom space to explore new ways of working in a sustainable facility. Called the VillageGreen, the 20,000-square-foot, pavilion-style building sensitively complements its leafy surroundings, while reinforcing the brand for staff and visiting clients. In addition to providing a light-filled workplace, the open-plan facility incorporates sustainable materials in a dynamic "customer experience journey" that promotes Herman Miller's products and ethos of environmental stewardship. For its achievements, the headquarters has obtained BREEAM Excellent and LEED® Gold ratings.
Gensler designed this 54-story tower as the visual anchor for the larger six-block sports and entertainment district known as L.A. LIVE. Comprising two distinct hotel brands, an 878-key JW Marriott hotel and a 123-key Ritz-Carlton boutique hotel, the tower's top 25 floors house Ritz-branded condominium residences. Located adjacent the STAPLES Center, the vertical icon contributes to the dynamism and sophistication of this revitalized commercial district. The sustainably designed tower earned LEED® Silver certification.
The first mission critical facility to achieve LEED® certification, this data center serves as the cornerstone of Fannie Mae's technology operations. Located on a 31-acre greenfield site, the 247,000-square-foot facility includes rack space, infrastructure support, a trading floor, call center, command center with direct visual access to the open data floor, disaster recovery area, offices and amenity spaces for employees. Designed to integrate within the surrounding residential community, the data center has realized a total of $1.7 million in energy savings, a 35 percent cost reduction, in its first five years of operation.
Technical highlights:
—Biometric and state-of-the-art security systems
—Tier IV fully redundant facility
Gensler served as Executive Architect for CityCenter, the largest private development in the United States. With 18 million square feet of building footprint on 76 acres of land, CityCenter provides a sophisticated, cosmopolitan hub on The Strip, distinguished by world-class design and sustainable urbanity. The world's largest LEED® development, the complex contains six LEED Gold-certified properties (one CS and five NC ratings). Gensler represented the owner's interests in the leadership and coordination of all aspects of design, programming, construction documentation, construction administration, common area design, and above- and below-grade infrastructure.
Nixon Peabody is the first U.S. law office to achieve LEED® certification. With one of the oldest environmental law practices in the country, the firm's sustainably designed office is closely aligned with its core values. The space is, as a managing partner said, "built on a foundation of light": its open, light-filled plan fosters collaboration and transparency. Nixon Peabody chose to implement a universal office size to create a more egalitarian space and reduce churn costs.
Pat Lobb Toyota is the first LEED® Silver dealership in the United States and a model for other eco-friendly automotive-related facilities. The dealership features a rain harvesting system; energy efficient building systems; regionally sourced materials; a green "living" wall; eco-friendly interior finishes; an innovative carwash water recycling system; and used car oil recycling/heating.
Gensler's strategic master plan encouraged Hearst to consolidate its New York offices into a single headquarters tower on 57th Street. The study determined the workplace criteria and ideal planning guidelines for the new tower. Gensler served as Associate Architect to Foster + Partners on the tower's interiors and, in addition to programming and construction documentation, collaborated with Foster through schematic design and design development. Gensler was the lead consultant for the building's interior LEED® certification, and the designer and technical consultant for a broadcast studio, employee fitness center, data center, media lab and a digital photo studio.
Transparent news reporting is essential to the success of media companies such as The New York Times Company. The Times' new building is a reflection of the newspaper's evolution within this context. Located in the tower's all-glass podium, the newsrooms are closer to the public and engage the streetscape with the energy of breaking news. Gensler designed the tower's energy-efficient interior spaces to be light and open, fostering collaboration among staff. Automatic lighting and shading maximize daylight; and the sustainable materials selected for furniture and finishes further promote a healthy office environment.
Recreational Equipment, Inc.'s new prototype store serves as a working laboratory for analyzing the performance of green building features and retail concepts. A renovation and expansion of the company's existing Boulder location, the 42,000-square-foot store is certified LEED® Gold. Exterior architecture and interior design elements draw inspiration from nature, while furthering REI's commitment to providing a gateway to the outdoors and reducing its environmental footprint. The store, which incorporates an elevated community center as its focal point, is a pilot project in the LEED for Retail program.
This store is the second of two prototype stores for outdoor retailer Recreational Equipment, Inc. (REI) that tests new retail design and green building concepts. Employing a design drawn from nature, the two-story, 32,700-square-foot space creates a sense of community and reflects the company’s leadership in environmental design. Design elements echo a wide range of sources: earthen strata, thick forest canopies and a towering pinnacle among others. Green building techniques and materials include aggressive daylight harvesting, reclaimed wood, recycled tennis shoes and sunflower seed husks. New signage and wayfinding systems provide clear navigation throughout the store.
The Congress is where retail industry leaders gather annually to discuss key issues and challenges affecting the retail sector. Gensler designed the centerpiece exhibit for the 2008 conference, creating a visual metaphor for the conference’s overarching theme: retailing and sustainability. Constructed from 3,000 cardboard boxes, the display expressed environmental credibility through its use of recycled and recyclable substrate — packed flat for shipping and providing a dramatic visual impact and presence when constructed. During the three days of the conference, designers rotated the boxes to reveal alternative messaging that reflected each day’s topics.
Houston’s first downtown LEED® Platinum office building, Hess Tower is a truly 21st century facility. Originally designed as a speculative office building, the tower is the only building of its generation in Houston to be 100-percent leased prior to its completion. And, its design was credited as a major factor in its recent record sale price. Adjacent to a 12-acre urban park, the 871,000-square-foot office building offers highly efficient floor plates, a green roof on the entry pavilion, sustainable water strategies, a high-performance curtain wall and the option for rooftop wind harvesting.
A global leader in building efficiency and power solutions, Johnson Controls charged Gensler with transforming its 1960s office complex into a high-performance campus showcasing the Fortune 100 company’s innovative sustainable technologies. Gensler’s work on the campus included a master plan, historic preservation of a conference center, renovation of two buildings, and design of two new building additions. Throughout the campus, increased collaborative space, new focus rooms to support concentration, and individual control of employee work environments are strategies intended to make employees’ time at the office more comfortable, enjoyable and productive. Now complete, Johnson Controls' campus showcases the highest concentration of LEED® Platinum buildings in the world.
Goals for this expansion project included: extending exhibition space below Lower Wacker Drive and creating a destination riverfront plaza; improving and increasing sustainability of the hotel’s energy, water and waste management systems; and improving connections to the river and surrounding urban environs. Sustainable features, such as the interactive curtain wall along the riverfront, include daylight harvesting to help light the lower-level conference space, and alternative methods of heating and cooling. A master plan for the south bank of the Chicago River will reactivate the city’s once-strong connection to the river. The project is seeking LEED® Platinum certification.
Gensler is providing architectural and interior design for Phase 2 of this 304-acre community — a vibrant new sustainable development that capitalizes on what has historically made Austin progressive while being mindful of the city’s burgeoning growth and evolving urban lifestyle. Phase 2 includes 180,000 square feet of office space, 750,000 square feet of retail, Austin’s first “aloft” hotel, 488 residential units and a richly landscaped nine-acre community park and pavilion. Driven by the concept of living and working in a single location, The Domain incorporates a wide and progressive mix of experiences and amenities and is being designed to LEED® Silver certification.
This international law firm traded the conventional status of upper floors for a commanding presence at the base of a Class-A office building after the design team demonstrated how an existing 30-foot-high, ground-floor retail space could be repositioned into a dynamic conference center by adding a mezzanine. The mezzanine is held off the perimeter and appears to float thanks to tension rods from which it hangs, revealing a dramatic, two-story glass promenade along the façade. A monumental, black granite staircase connects the three-level conference center, while bright and lively corner cafés on each floor creatively exploit an otherwise irregular space. The offices are certified LEED-CI®.
In the redesign of Reed Smith’s regional New York office, Gensler created a dynamic center that supports the firm’s new approach to business. An inviting reception area features olive and walnut woods and glass etched with organic patterns. A new private office suite for visiting attorneys incorporates its own dedicated lounge and support spaces. The large, flexible multipurpose room accommodates special events with Skyfold partitions that can transform it into more intimate meeting rooms. Two new informal meeting rooms encourage collaboration.
This two-story, 55,000-square-foot building fulfills the university's vision to create a focus for student life on campus. Housing a 700-seat event space, student and executive dining, a student pub, bookstore and offices, this new facility responds architecturally to the campus’ historical context with brick façades complemented by glass entries, clerestory windows and skylights to maximize natural daylight in the interiors. The LEED® Silver-certified building introduces a contemporary space to the campus while complementing its existing character.
A collaboration between Westfield Design and Gensler, this expansion project introduced 890,000 square feet of contemporary retail space and parking to the Annapolis Mall. Acknowledging the shopping center’s existing architecture, designers updated and extended the mall’s nautical theme to the new interior retail space, signage and wayfinding system. Modern shopping concepts and design elements enhance the upgraded food court and a number of mall courtyards. Because the site dictated that the new parking structure be located above the retail on two levels, the expansion incorporates glass courtyards to provide access and draw light into the shopping areas.
Through a GSA design-build lease-back competition, the DEA sought a new headquarters facility that would serve as an iconic home for the agency, improve its public image, increase site and building security, and consolidate multiple departments and locations. Gensler’s winning design addressed all of these goals with a striking four-story, steel-and-glass LEED-NC® Silver certified building. Highly efficient, the building incorporates a traditional speculative office structural model that accommodates a flexible interior, leveraging maximum lease rates and ensuring a future exit strategy for the building’s developer.
Located in a technology office park, this 125,000-square-foot tenant improvement project houses more than 400 workers from three government agencies. Facilities include offices, teaming areas, an auditorium, cafeteria, video teleconference rooms and an executive suite. The building is designed to be Anti-Terrorism Force Protection (ATFP)-compliant and incorporates site security measures, as well as building envelope improvements for blast and ballistics. To provide maximum facility flexibility, higher-end materials are incorporated in areas that anticipate few design changes over time, with more cost-efficient materials and finishes employed in the transitional spaces. Designated LEED-CI® Gold, this sustainable building provides employees with a bright, modern and functional workplace.
Patriots Plaza, the first speculative office complex in the capital to meet post-9/11 security requirements, demonstrates that a project can be marketable to private-sector tenants with high expectations for workspace aesthetics, while addressing the complexities of new government safety and security standards. The one-million-square-foot, three-building complex offers a range of critical security features that exceed government standards, including minimum 30-foot stand-off distances, progressive collapse avoidance, blast-resistant glass, expendable entryways and a separate vertical transport from garage to security checkpoint. Phases II and III of the complex are certified LEED-CS® Gold and perform 14 percent better than ASHRAE 9.1.
This adaptive reuse project transformed a 1960s warehouse into a secure, efficient, state-of-the-art hub for the Smithsonian Institution’s growing museum programs. The product of consolidating programs from multiple facilities, the renovated space incorporates workshops for exhibit fabrication and graphics production, environmentally controlled collections storage, thousands of linear feet of library shelving and a rare-book conservation lab. Organized into “buildings” surrounding a community plaza, functions are interconnected by a series of “streets” that serve both pedestrians and forklifts. New skylights and vibrant colors aid wayfinding and enhance productivity and workplace performance across a one-floor space that spans the equivalent to eight acres.
Gensler assisted the GSA in translating research conducted by the Office of Applied Sciences into a series of practical white papers that serve as a guide to future office planning, design, delivery and utilization. Assessing Green Building Performance is a post-occupancy evaluation of 12 GSA buildings. Energy Savings and Performance Gains in GSA Buildings is the largest, most comprehensive workstation data set in the world and resulted in seven strategies to save energy and increase user satisfaction. And The New Federal Workplace evaluates the success of the GSA’s Workplace 20•20 program and provides recommendations for improvements where warranted. The latest paper, Leveraging Mobility, Managing Place, considers the impact of modern work styles on real estate management and carbon footprint.
During the last decade, Gensler has partnered with this global manufacturer and distributor of electrical solutions, developing guidelines and standards for workplace and branding, designing a customer briefing center prototype, and expanding existing warehouse distribution and office/manufacturing facilities. The latest effort, the LEED® Gold-designed world headquarters is a break from the conventional suburban office park. Located outside Chicago, the five-story, 280,000-square-foot building represents the first phase in a Gensler-authored, 30-year master plan. Infused with Panduit’s brand and inspired by its high-tech products, the sleek, granite-and-glass structure symbolizes the company’s vision of establishing an environmentally responsible “building of the future” for its clients and employees.
Designed as representative of the Bay Area’s culture and aesthetic, the newly renovated Terminal 2 (SFO T2) accommodates 14 gates serving Virgin America and American Airlines. The terminal elevates the passenger experience through design strategies that reduce traveler stress, highlight the airport’s world-renowned art installations and promote progressive sustainability measures. With an emphasis on service, hospitality and comfort, SFO T2 features a post-security Recompose area, a meeters-and-greeters lounge, hotel-inspired seating areas and a range of locally sourced, organic dining options. The first LEED® Gold-certified terminal in the United States, T2 supports SFO’s goals of zero waste, sustainable education and reduced carbon footprint. See the Interactive Map and learn more at GenslerOn.
The Center for Dance is the largest professional dance facility of its kind in the United States. A visual reminder of Houston’s commitment to the performing arts, the center serves as a gateway to the city’s Theater District and a living billboard for dance. The building’s design draws inspiration from a proscenium stage, showcasing classes and rehearsals through large windows into double-height-volume rehearsal studios. Home to the ballet and its Academy, the six-story, 115,000-square-foot building boasts nine dance studios, a dance laboratory, and artistic, administrative and support facilities.
Adjacent Chicago’s heavily trafficked Kennedy Expressway, this new dealership provides a showcase for Fletcher Jones’ luxury automotive range and commitment to sustainability. The stand-alone facility incorporates 60,000-square-feet of interior showroom and customer parking with additional square footage allotted to exterior inventory beneath a green roof. Traditional Autohaus elements and Mercedes-Benz branding welcome customers at the main entrance, while the angular, expressway-facing, glass-and-metal façade acts as a billboard, offering high-profile visibility to the vehicles housed within. Certified LEED® Silver, the dealership also complies with Chicago Green Building requirements, emphasizing environmental and thermal controls, as well as energy and water efficiency.
Located within Baltimore’s hip, urban Harbor East neighborhood, this branch incorporates PNC Bank design objectives — recognizable, accessible, sustainable — within a redeveloped turn-of the-century furniture warehouse. Gensler’s design infused salvaged base building material with PNC’s standard kit-of-parts to create a welcoming banking environment that’s both contemporary and timeless. The removal of a floor during renovation yielded a wealth of century-old building material that contributed to the branch earning LEED®-CI Gold certification. PNC’s prototypical architectural and branding elements are reinterpreted and adapted to reflect the building’s historic character and the bank’s community connections.
A manufacturer of specialty mineral products, AMCOL partnered with Gensler to design a headquarters that showcases innovation and environmental stewardship, while promoting collaboration between company scientists and the corporate groups that market, sell and distribute AMCOL’s applications. Located in a seven-acre sustainable development that preserves and protects wetlands and wildlife habitat, the LEED® Silver-certified headquarters provides a place where the products made from the “clay of a 1,000 uses” can be displayed to educate and inform customers and employees alike. A vertical space called “the canyon” visually connects the two-story, 80,000-square-foot facility’s open offices to its laboratory and meeting spaces, reinforcing connections between products and people.
Challenged to consolidate two campuses into one unified world headquarters, Beckman Coulter engaged Gensler to transform its work environment through a project encompassing the renovation of a five-building campus comprising work space, labs, manufacturing and associated amenities. A team composed of integrated design disciplines provided the biomedical instrument provider with workplace strategy, planning and interior design, branding and environmental graphics, sustainable strategies and base-building architectural design. The resulting headquarters is an activity-based workplace centered on the company’s core values of wellness and innovation, providing a range of spaces and settings for collaborating, learning and socializing.
Through extensive renovation, Gensler transformed an aging spec-office building on the I-10 freeway near downtown Los Angeles into a distinctive landmark — a generously day-lit, sustainable headquarters that visually conveys Cathay Bank’s “open-door” approach to banking. Working with the volumetric constraints of its existing structural frame, the new exterior envelope dramatically re-shaped and re-proportioned the building while also enhancing seismic and energy performance. A signature super-graphic of a goldfish — the Chinese symbol of abundance and wealth — spans multiple floors, adding color and interest to this high-performance workplace.
Gensler considered and designed every detail of this office/hotel/condominium project — from its strategic location to it furnishings — for optimal economic, environmental and community benefit. Highly efficient office and hotel floor plates optimize lease and planning spans, while the hotel’s interiors feature steel and glass elements, a nod to the city’s industrial past, as well as works by local artists. The lobby’s high ceiling draws in abundant natural light, setting the tone for an asymmetric grand staircase that leads to the restaurant. Guest rooms, with color schemes inspired by Pittsburgh’s rivers and bridges, convey a timeless aesthetic and spacious feel through thoughtful design details and elegantly simple furniture.
An adaptive re-use of Philadelphia’s historic “Architects Building,” this sophisticated 230-room hotel is Kimpton’s first LEED® Silver-certified property. The hotel includes a signature restaurant, a dozen spa suites, a presidential suite, a penthouse ballroom, a more prominent canopy entrance and a reconfigured lobby aptly called “The Living Room.” As an adaptive re-use project, the hotel incorporates multiple eco-conscious design and operations initiatives, from resource conservation to energy and water-use reduction.
Just north of Shanghai, this five-building complex is a model of sustainable development, organized around a vast manmade lake and connected by bridges skimming the water’s surface. Terraces, pavilions and other spaces offer water views, invite gatherings and build community. The range of settings provided across the complex speaks to the diversity of learning style that the school will support: Facilities include an academic incubator with wet and dry labs, a cultural center, guest rooms and suites. Because of the 201-acre site’s high water table, 40 acres are left as undisturbed wetlands.
The sole provider of higher education for western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley, GCC prepares students for the region’s growing knowledge-based economy. To modernize its 1970s-era campus core, GCC turned to Gensler to help shape a vision and strategy for redefining the experience of the school’s Berkshire foothills campus. The transformed grounds include a new quadrangle capable of hosting large, outdoor functions, clearer connections between facilities with improved accessibility, and the centerpiece, a repositioned large-volume library that now functions as the hub of school activity with a learning commons, student services, administration and assembly spaces for social engagement.
Constructed in 1926, the Julia Ideson Building is one of Houston’s civic treasures. A $32 million renovation of the former main library resulted from a dynamic public/private partnership between the City of Houston and the non-profit Julia Ideson Library Preservation Partners (JILPP). Providing a repository for Houston memorabilia and rare archival material, the “new” library serves as the official city reception space and venue for exhibits, meetings and special events. Designed by noted Boston architect Ralph Adams Cram, the Spanish Renaissance building is replete with polychrome painted ceilings, intricate woodwork, marble columns and lofty public spaces. The restored library introduces a south wing and reading garden that were unrealized features of Cram’s original design.
Bringing together multidisciplinary teams to develop solutions to alleviate global poverty, the Blum Center complex renovates and expands the historic 1914 Naval Architecture Building to provide a light-filled, three-story space shared by the center and the college. Responding to its landmark counterpart with a modern interpretation, the new wing is connected to the existing building by a second-floor bridge. The LEED® Silver-certified building incorporates a number of sustainable design strategies, including extensive use of glass, sunshades, operable windows and FSC-certified cedar shingles from sustainably managed forests.