We’re Committed to Enriching Our Communities
Chapter 510 – Swan’s Market, Gensler Oakland
We believe in being part of the solution by creating positive change.
As stewards of our local communities, we are focused on how we can create a better world through the power of design. Across every Gensler office our people donate their time, skills, and passion to their communities through volunteer service and pro bono and low bono work. We believe that when we put people first, we make the world a better place.
FOUR COMMUNITY IMPACT THEMES
The Next Generation
Through partnerships with programs such as ACE Mentor, NOMA, and City Year, we’re supporting organizations that foster the well-being of children and the education and training of students for careers in architecture and design.
Health & Wellness
Gensler is dedicated to building healthy places that blend functionality and comfort and improve measurable health outcomes for all communities.
Housing & Homelessness
At Gensler, we are committed to finding and creating housing solutions for communities facing the crises of homelessness, displacement, and lack of workforce housing.
The Environment
Leveraging our expertise in design resilience, Gensler helps communities develop and realize innovative and sustainable solutions to mitigate the effects of climate change and combat its root causes.
EXPLORE RELATED STORIES
Blog
Designing for Social Impact in Our Communities
The Gensler Community Impact Awards celebrate the remarkable achievements of teams across the firm in pro bono, low bono, mentoring, and research projects that align with the Gensler Model of Community Impact.
Blog
A Holistic Approach to Community Impact in Washington, D.C.
Our Gensler DC Community Impact group focuses its time and resources to improve health and education outcomes in Wards 7 and 8, which are historically disinvested communities east of the Anacostia River. In recent years, we have developed a key partnership with Kelly Miller Middle School, a Title 1 school in Ward 7 serving students grades six through eight, to provide holistic support to the students and their families.
Blog
The Housing Crisis: Finding Hope in Innovation
The pandemic exacerbating the housing crisis in many U.S. cities. For residential architects and designers to make a difference, we must embrace solutions like modular construction, adaptive reuse, and progressive legislation.
In The Media
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The Architect’s Newspaper
Gensler Brings Trauma-Informed Design to the Forefront at Rose Haven Shelter
Inclusivity, dignity, and stress-reduction were key factors in the firm’s design of Portland's Rose Haven day shelter and community center.
In The Media
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Business Insider
DignityMoves’ New Village of Prefab Homes Aims to Ease the Homelessness Crisis
The nonprofit’s community of tiny, colorful homes, designed by Gensler, will shelter unhoused people.
Blog
A YMCA Facility Reconceptualized to Prioritize Wellness and Community
As a facility that had to be reconceptualized and designed during the pandemic, the Holcomb Family YMCA in Spring, Texas is designed to help members maintain healthy lifestyles and stay connected with the community.
Blog
How D.C.’s Community of Hope Family Health and Birth Center Supports Black Women
Birth centers can level the playing field for low-income women and women of color. Community of Hope addresses social determinants impacting mothers and babies and offers health services regardless of one’s ability to pay.
Blog
Designing a Black-Owned Gallery to Elevate Artists of Color
At Gallery 90220, a new Black-owned art space in South L.A., Gensler's designers leveraged the power of design to literally create a platform to share the stories of artists of color.
Blog
Community Impact Is a Key Strategy in Returning to the Office
Community impact has the potential for positive, long-lasting benefits on our workforce and our culture.
Blog
Giving Back Has Never Been More Important
In this time of crisis, we need to double down on our community impact efforts.
Blog
Blank Canvas: Using Art to Create Community in the Workplace
Whether it is a curated art program, an emerging artists installation, or a dedicated gallery, organizations are finding unique ways to use art as a tool to inspire social change and connect with the community.
Blog
Decades of Commitment to Our Communities
In 1996, the Orange County Rescue Mission partnered with Gensler to convert a former military facility into Village of Hope — a shelter and service provider for homeless families. More than twenty years later, the partnership continues to grow.
Blog
A Multi-Stakeholder Approach to Tackling Rural Waste Management
On Isla Chira, a remote island in Costa Rica's Gulf of Nicoya, a recent groundbreaking showcases Gensler’s commitment to both the environment and making significant local impact.
Blog
Designing Informal Learning Environments with 826 National
Today, educating the next generation isn’t just happening within schools, but in informal learning environments as well. 826 National, a not-for-profit creative writing and tutoring center network serving underprivileged youth ages 6 through 18, is one organization that is taking a novel look at designing learning spaces.
Blog
Community Engagement in Motion
For projects big and small, cracking the code of community outreach and public engagement has been a longstanding challenge. But the projects that are most successful are often the ones that invest time in the community and build something greater together.
Blog
Community Impact Puts People First
At Gensler, we put people first. Nowhere does that shine through stronger than in our strategic model for Community Impact.
EXPLORE RELATED PROJECTS
Friendship Foundation Campus
Designed by Gensler, the Friendship Campus encompasses a 50,000-square-foot building that will serve the Los Angeles area through its mission to transform the lives of people with special needs, their families, volunteers, and eventually, society at large. Planned around a pair of courtyards and...
Rose Haven Community Day Shelter
Oregon has the second highest rate of homelessness in the country. To help address this, Rose Haven — Portland’s only community day shelter for women and children — was in need of a larger facility to better serve the unhoused in the community. Gensler donated its services to design Rose Haven’s...
Holcomb Family YMCA
As a community-serving facility that was reconceptualized and designed during the pandemic, the Holcomb Family YMCA is unlike any other of its kind. Envisioned as an inclusive destination where people can find hope, fellowship, and healing, the facility’s innovative design provides members with...
Debbie Allen Dance Academy
Gensler partnered with the Debbie Allen Dance Academy to design its new Shonda Rhimes Performing Arts Center, a top-tier arts venue that supports the nonprofit organization’s commitment to expanding the reach of dance and theater arts to enrich the lives of young dancers in the Greater Los...
SPARK: A STEAM Activity Book
Welcome to SPARK! Gensler, a global architecture and design firm, believes in the transformational power of design. As part of Gensler’s Community Impact program, volunteers from our Texas offices created SPARK, an activity book for 4th–8th graders. SPARK features a variety of STEAM-focused...
Access Gallery
In 2020, Gensler partnered with Access Gallery to redesign its 1,500-square-foot studio and gallery, resulting in a more functional, flexible, and accessible space. Access Gallery, a longtime partner of Gensler Denver, provides cultural, economic, and educational opportunities for individuals...
REACH LA
Gensler Los Angeles partnered with REACH LA to design a vibrant and welcoming space where the nonprofit organization can engage and empower LGBTQ+ people of color through creative arts, health and wellness, personal development, and social enterprise. REACH LA provides resources and enrichment...
Community of Hope Family Health and Birth Center
Located in Northeast D.C., Community of Hope provides quality healthcare services to under-served and underrepresented communities. With a mission to improve health outcomes and support the needs of individuals and families, Community of Hope worked with Gensler to utilize an existing building...
SAY Sí Community Arts Center
SAY Sí (San Antonio Youth Yes) ignites the creative power of young people as forces of positive change, empowers marginalized communities by investing in and elevating the value of artists, and advances cultural education. Its creative youth development programs are year-round, long-term, and...
Design for Distancing
The Design for Distancing challenge — organized by the City of Baltimore, the Neighborhood Design Center, Baltimore Development Corporation, and Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health — called on the city's design and public health communities to scope, develop, and implement...
Plywood Place
Plywood Place was designed to support startups doing good in a multi-purpose and co-working space inside a 10,000-sq.-ft. former warehouse that was designed with the Plywood community in mind. Celebrating the West End neighborhood, Plywood Place embraces the local context, opening up to the...
Lupita’s Corner
In partnership with the LA Food Policy Council’s Healthy Neighborhood Market Network program, Gensler Los Angeles helped transform a local neighborhood market, Lupita’s Corner, into a community hub that helps address the issue of food inequity in a bright, modern space that offers nutritious...
Kartma
Downtown Streets Team (DST) creates programs that help people experiencing homelessness to rebuild their dignity and self-confidence. One such program is Kartma, a mobile community engagement vehicle (tuk tuk) stocked with lawn games and information, located in San Francisco’s Civic Center...
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice
Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice (NACH) is the only children’s community-based hospice providing support for babies, children, and young people with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions across central and north London. Needing to provide greater care for more children and their families...
CBI Art Wall
CBI is active in the local markets it serves, and its leadership strongly believes in giving back to the communities that make its business successful. With the recent popularity of the Light Rail in Charlotte, CBI saw an opportunity to give back to the community by activating its 100-foot white...
MOMENT at San Pedro Square
With a variety of restaurants and events, San Pedro Street is one of San Jose’s most popular and lively places. However, a large parking structure dominating one side of the street resulted in a lack of appeal and foot traffic. Receiving a grant from the Knight Foundation for the San Pedro...
City Year: Bethune Elementary School
The concept for City Year’s 100% donation-based mentoring room in a high-need Detroit school is based around the tool that is often used in education to express ideas: a pencil. In the same way that a pencil provides limitless freedom to express ideas, the room provides tools to empower students...
Harold Washington Children’s Library
The newly renovated 26,000-square-foot Thomas Hughes Children’s Library was designed as part of a master plan for the Chicago Public Library system to help children grow from spectators to active participants and as a parent incubator to support the city’s resources for caretakers. The design is...
Impact Hub Baltimore
Part innovation lab, part coworking space and part civic forum, Impact Hub Baltimore brings together mission-driven innovators, entrepreneurs and organizations across the city’s social-impact network. With its goal of maintaining an inclusive, diverse membership reflective of Baltimore’s...
826 Valencia Tenderloin Center
Not-for-profit 826 Valencia’s latest venture is the retail component of this mixed-use learning space that supports the creative writing skills of under-resourced students. Located in a former liquor store in the city’s densely populated, low-income Tenderloin district, the quirky retail shop is...
Project Color Corps
Project Color Corps is a nonprofit that seeks to create positive change by painting inner city schools with colors and patterns that impart messages of optimism and hope. At Cambridge Elementary School, Gensler partnered with the organization, delving into the students' experiences to learn...
826CHI
In moving to a bigger, brighter space down the street from its previous home, nonprofit tutoring and writing center 826CHI sought to not only expand, but more effectively convey the creative energy at work there. Through pro-bono services, Gensler developed a mission-focused master plan that...
Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity
To accommodate the growing number of families in need of housing services, Twin Cities Habitat for Humanity (TCHFH), one of the organization’s leading chapters, partnered with Gensler to develop a project approach and program tested in several locations within the city’s Central Corridor...
Goodwill Pop-Up Shop
Responding to a Goodwill request for volunteers, Gensler turned the opportunity into an occasion to address some of the challenges facing Goodwill’s stores, including inconsistent branding and weak visual merchandising. The resulting Goodwill-Gensler collaboration yielded “Edited by Goodwill,” a...
PARKSPACE
PARKSPACE is a community project led by the Austin Foundation for Architecture and AIA Austin in collaboration with the Austin Parks and Recreation Department and supported by Gensler. Located across four city parks, art installations are designed to help residents maintain social distance while...
Center on Halsted
Center on Halsted is the Midwest’s most comprehensive community center dedicated to advancing community and securing the health and well-being of local lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people. Located in the heart of Chicago’s Lakeview Neighborhood, this environmentally...
Partnering for Impact
By establishing a network with more than 260 community partner organizations, Gensler amplifies its outreach activities, creating new opportunities to foster relationships with like-minded partners.
For additional information or questions, please email .