Dialogue Blog

Designing a New Platform for Uber's Vision of Aerial Rideshare

The vision of aerial ridesharing presented at the 2019 Uber Elevate conference this week is a bold one that promises to shift the way people experience cities — and one that will be a reality much sooner than most people think.

June 12, 2019 | By Scott Gorenc

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.

June 12, 2019 | By Kathleen Carey

Hospitals Are Moving Into Their Communities

In the healthcare industry, provider loyalty no longer comes from proximity alone. Thanks to a global trend of digitalization and increasingly available medical knowledge, healthcare consumers are now empowered to seek out providers that offer greater levels of accessibility, convenience, and service.

May 31, 2019 | By Amy Carter, Bethany Callihan, James Crispino

Inclusive Design Should Never Exclude Style

Products that are ADA compliant are typically well-engineered, but frequently bulky, poorly styled, and visually dispiriting — and millwork pulls are no exception.

June 03, 2019 | By Scott Star

California's New Gold Standard for Net Zero Developments

The latest innovation from the state that gave us blue jeans, popsicles, personal computers, skateboards, and the Internet has arrived: California's new Zero Net Energy code revisions, which will drive the creation of perhaps the greatest concentration of energy efficient buildings on the planet.

May 24, 2019 | By Anthony Brower

Amenities in the Age of Experience

In a market saturated with experiences, our clients across all industries are constantly reinventing themselves to meet the fast and furious demands. Read our newest POV to learn more about how unique and thoughtful amenities can allow brands to compete on the world stage.

May 21, 2019 | By Amy Ridley

Creating Space for Mental Health Conversations in the Workplace

Work can be both a source of — and a relief from — the stresses of modern life.

May 17, 2019 | By Cheryl Duvall

The Promise of the Internet of Things in an Airport Environment

In the competitive scramble of airlines and airports to differentiate themselves, the Internet of Things has wide-ranging potential to improve operations and enhance the traveler experience.

May 10, 2019 | By Scott Gorenc

The Battle for the Right of Way

Gensler's David Zaidain speaks with Dan Emerine of the DC Department of Transportation and Maggie Gendron of Lime to learn more about how technology is affecting our transportation systems and urban infrastructure.

May 07, 2019 | By David Zaidain

A Shattering Development for Glass-and-Steel Skyscrapers

If New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has his way, the Big Apple will go in an entirely different direction with its skyscrapers. As part of his city’s OneNYC2050 initiative — a sort of Green New Deal for America’s largest metropolis — de Blasio is proposing to make it much tougher to build the kinds of glass-and-steel towers that have become synonymous with the city.

May 02, 2019 | By Brenden Jackson, Anthony Brower

Just a Government Town? Think Again.

High-profile tech companies and consumer brands are relocating to Washington, DC. And they’re not coming for the usual Washington reason: to be near the Federal government.

April 29, 2019 | By Robert A. Peck

The Power of Narrative in an Era of Evolving Legacies

With boundaries between media and technology constantly blurring, it is easy for media companies to lose sight of both their own legacy and the narrative they seek to craft. At the WTOP headquarters in Washington, D.C., however, a clear, purposeful celebration and expression of brand legacy stems this tide. When a story of this nature is told through workplace design, the results can be extremely powerful not only for employees, but also curious guests or clients.

April 25, 2019 | By Sumita Arora

Designing a More Flexible, Healthy, and Expressive Legal Office

When it comes to recruitment and retention at law offices, it’s no longer enough just to have a workplace that functions well. A workplace has to capture and enhance a firm’s culture through a variety of design approaches.

April 23, 2019 | By Steve Martin

Urbanism and the Pursuit of Happiness

Cities are magnets for those who seek better jobs, opportunities, and more diverse communities. But does city life make us happy? We look at some of the basic building blocks for a better, happier city.

April 18, 2019 | By Claudia Carol

Houston's ByDesign Group Explores Local Ideas for the Future of Cities

A group of young architects and designers at Gensler Houston are proposing big, bold ideas for the future of their city and beyond.

April 16, 2019 | By Jong Kim

A How-to for Creative Placemaking and Tactical Urbanism

Pop-up, temporary, and semi-permanent public space projects have evolved past being mere experiments. They now form a substantial part of urban business operations that governments and developers are championing, but until recently policies around temporary use of the urban realm have been murky and difficult to navigate.

April 11, 2019 | By Allison Palmadesso, Carolyn Sponza

You Are Beautiful: Dining by Design

For the 22nd installment of DIFFA New York’s Dining By Design, design firms across the city mobilized to produce 23 carefully curated dining vignettes that raise awareness for individuals impacted by HIV/AIDS. Gensler New York’s 2019 design concept, titled “You Are Beautiful,” served as a celebratory reminder to all those individuals living with HIV/AIDS that they are not alone in their fight.

April 08, 2019 | By Laurel Petriello

How Open Is Too Open for Your Office?

It’s time to end the debate about whether offices should be an open or closed environment. New data from Gensler's 2019 U.S. Workplace Survey provides answers to how open the open office should be.

April 01, 2019 | By Diane Hoskins

How Do We Accommodate Traveling Service Animals?

In order to make travel more accessible for all passengers, airports are required to provide relief areas for use by service animals. The definition of a service animal has expanded and contracted over the years and, as such, it can be challenging to understand how to best serve their needs.

March 26, 2019 | By Scott Gorenc

It's Time for Office Amenities to Get to Work

As the office landscape continues to evolve and companies grant their employees more freedom and choice to work where they like (whether inside or outside the office), Gensler's research shows that the amenities with the greatest impact on effectiveness and experience are those that directly support the work needs of individual employees and their teams.

March 22, 2019 | By Amanda Carroll

10 Tips for Success in an Open Plan

Transitioning to an open plan doesn’t have to be intimidating. In fact, if it’s an office layout where you have a range of spaces to support focus and collaboration, you'll likely be even be more effective and productive.

March 20, 2019 | By Michael Chappell

The Open Office Isn't Dead (Redux)

It’s time for a new narrative around work and the workplace — one that reflects the realities of the needs and desires of today’s workers and the diversity of the modern workforce.

March 19, 2019 | By Janet Pogue McLaurin

Why Not-For-Profits Deserve a Utopian Workplace

Not-for-profit employees are four times more likely to be motivated by mission than the average employee in another sector. Our passion for supporting these workers led us to embark on a thought experiment: What would a utopia look like if it were designed for the not-for-profit employee and their individual sense of purpose?

March 07, 2019 | By Amanda Ramos, Santiago Rivera

The Third Lane: Rethinking Street Design for the 21st Century

What does the explosive growth of shared electric scooters tell us about the changing dynamics of city life? And how can we better shape the city of tomorrow to respond to new modes of mobility?

February 26, 2019 | By Dylan Jones

Keep it Moving: New Technologies at the Airport Curbside

The disruptive impact that Transportation Network Companies and app-based rides have had on airport curbsides has been significant. While companies such as Uber, Lyft, and Wingz are becoming more commonplace, many airports have been caught off guard. Now they’re scrambling to catch up.

February 18, 2019 | By Scott Gorenc

From Smart Buildings to Intelligent Placemaking

Data and AI are being invisibly woven into everything around us. As we move towards an intelligence economy where data is a raw material, we have an opportunity to take a new approach to design.

February 14, 2019 | By Richard Tyson

Polycentric Cities: The Future of Sustainable Urban Growth

As we approach a new normal for urban density, the cities that are best positioned for the future are evolving along a decentralized, multi-nodal model.

February 12, 2019 | By Aleksandar Sasha Zeljic

If A City Isn’t Smart, Does That Mean It’s Stupid?

The concept of smart cities might be shrewd marketing on the part of tech companies, so what does it mean for a city to truly be “smart”?

February 06, 2019 | By Brenden Jackson

On Climate Change and Hope

Despite rising carbon dioxide emissions, we can still tackle global warming.

January 23, 2019 | By Rives Taylor, Brenden Jackson

How Will Biometric Screening Change the Airport Environment?

Fueled by science fiction, biometric screening has long been associated with a futuristic society. Today, governmental agencies, airlines, and airport operators are all exploring the technology as a means to both increase security and improve passenger processing.

January 22, 2019 | By Scott Gorenc

Climate Reprogramming

Façade design is one example where performance, technology, and code changes come together to positively impact the environment; and our first targets in this endeavor should be existing building stock, where a vast majority of our energy consumption originates.

January 10, 2019

Creating Transit-Oriented Communities in Los Angeles

When Phil Washington took the helm of the LA Metro in 2015, he spoke about connecting transit-oriented communities — not transit-oriented developments — and kicked off a critical shift in the way we think about transportation investments, land use, and development in LA.

January 08, 2019

Reimagining the Hotel Lobby as a Vibrant Social Hub

Many of today’s travelers spend more time in the lobby than in their rooms — and, with a mix of hotel guests and locals, today’s lobby feels more like a neighborhood coffee shop than a hotel entry point. Today, the lobby must be a vibrant, 24/7 revenue-generating space designed for a mix of different uses.

January 03, 2019 | By Steven R. Upchurch

From Railroads to Electric Scooters: How Mobility Shapes the City of Today and Tomorrow

From GPS-enabled electric scooters, to driverless cars, and even aerial ride-share services, disruptive mobility is on the rise. With the explosion of these services, it’s critical that we build a common language of understanding as we shape a vision for the cities of tomorrow.

December 19, 2018 | By Dylan Jones

Creating a Beautiful, Energy-Efficient Building for Harbin Bank

Harbin Bank’s new headquarters in Beijing is both aesthetically pleasing and high performing. By maximizing natural daylight and energy efficiency, while minimizing harmful particulates, the building serves as a climate-responsive solution and an elegant example for the city.

December 17, 2018 | By Russell Gilchrist

What the Math Behind Climate Change Is Telling Us

Global carbon emissions reached a record high in 2018. As the math of climate action suggests a growing gap between countries’ action pledges and their measures to limit global warming, the question for our industry becomes: how do you approach sustainability design in a world where arresting climate change no longer seems possible?

December 14, 2018

Winning the War for Talent: Could Your Workplace be Doing More?

With the labor shortage in the U.S. expected to continue for years, leading organizations aren’t waiting for their next lease renewal to enhance their physical workplace. Instead, they’re exploring ways to leverage it as an asset for attracting and retaining talent.

December 13, 2018

An Advocate’s Journey: The Role of Design in Enabling Issue Advocacy

In the design world there are a lot of buzzwords we hear every day: experience, purpose, disruption... But what about advocacy? Physical space can and should be a catalyst for issue advocacy. Space has the potential to inspire, and it can be the gateway that initially connects people to an issue or cause. 

December 12, 2018

2018 Gensler Design Excellence Awards

Now in its 18th year, the Gensler Design Excellence Awards (GDEA) program sets a standard that all our design teams can aspire to. Within our global firm of more than 6,000 employees, the annual program is a purposeful tradition that nurtures and elevates our design culture.

December 11, 2018

Treat Us Like a Client: Three Things I’d Do Differently in Designing Our New Workplace

When planning a new office in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Gensler became the client, rather than the design team. A year after moving into the space, Managing Director Joan Meyers reflects on three things she would have done differently during the planning process.

December 06, 2018