Dialogue Blog

Doubling Down on Our Commitment to Resilience

With hundreds of millions of square feet of buildings and interior design projects in the pipeline annually, we believe our impact and role in reducing energy demand is critical. That's why we're announcing the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge with an ambitious goal for the entire design industry: eliminate all greenhouse gases associated with the built environment.

September 20, 2019 | By Diane Hoskins

Design Forecast Phoenix: A New Workplace Narrative

Gensler Phoenix partnered with our local ULI chapter to bring the local community together to discuss new challenges in workplace design, from coworking to change management.

October 14, 2019 | By Rory Carder

Building an Interconnected Future in Downtown Dallas

To shape people’s experience of a city, we have to start by shaping one block, one intersection, or one individual building. At 400 Record Street in Dallas, a repositioning project presented an opportunity to reactivate the street level around one decades-old building and reengage with the pedestrians of downtown.

October 10, 2019 | By Ian Zapata

The Future of Climate Policy Starts in Our Cities

Densely populated urban areas are epicenters for greenhouse gas emissions, but the policies made by local legislatures are informing global solutions to climate change.

October 08, 2019 | By Rose DiSarno, Oliver Schaper

Celebrating 20 Years of Design Excellence

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Gensler Design Excellence Awards, a program that seeks to elevate the firm’s design quality and celebrate design excellence in our projects.

October 03, 2019 | By Jean Anderson, Jeff Barber

Hospitals in an Age of Climate Change: Can They Survive the Storm?

In the face of extreme weather events, we must plan and design healthcare facilities that can assure quality care even when other basic infrastructure fails.

September 26, 2019 | By Jeff Saad, Michael Schur, Kelly Westwood

A 'What If?' Manifesto: Improving the Bus Experience

In the United States, it’s almost a point of faith that the bus riding experience will be subpar. While that may not be everyone’s daily bus reality, it raises the question: “what if this were different?”

September 17, 2019 | By David Zaidain

The Inertia of Home

For tenants, moving is expensive, unsettling, and time-consuming. For owners, high turnover is costly because of repairs and maintenance between occupancy periods and — even worse — entire months of lost rent. How do we embrace long-term thinking and create an “inertia of home” that entices people to truly come to rest?

September 12, 2019 | By Phil Esocoff

Designing for All Learners: 5 Myths Debunked

Instead of designing to the mythical “average learner” and adapting to accommodate outliers, it’s time we flip the model and design for all learners.

September 10, 2019 | By Patricia Nobre, Erin Cubbison, Allison Bulgart

Enlivening a Dead Block in San Jose

The first block of North San Pedro Street was an otherwise active center of San Jose, California — save for an uninviting 3-story parking garage that created an unavoidable dead zone. With the city's support, Gensler helped repurpose the ground floor of the structure to accommodate micro-retail spaces for local business owners, enliven the community, and encourage a renewed pedestrian experience.

September 05, 2019 | By Kathleen Carey

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.

August 29, 2019 | By Kathleen Carey

Transforming Walmart’s Home Office in Bentonville

The world’s largest retailer’s new home office delivers more than just top amenities and appealing aesthetics. It’s a connected and sustainable campus where associates are inspired to do their best work.

August 27, 2019 | By Cindy Simpson, Douglas C. Gensler

Healthcare Providers Take Note: Every Space is a Healthy Workspace

As more organizations provide active, healthy workplaces, healthcare providers are following suit and discovering how a well-performing workplace can be beneficial for everyone from physicians and administrators, to the patients themselves.

August 26, 2019 | By Jeff Saad, Cindy Coleman, Michael Schur

Creating Unique Experiences a Focus at Latin America Hotel and Resort Expansion Summit

With an ever-expanding blur between travel for business or leisure, the most successful travel destinations will be those who develop distinct experiences rooted in a sense of place.

August 22, 2019 | By Javier Cortes

In Africa, Your Solar Panels Don’t Mean Squat

The idea of sustainability, as we currently understand it, just doesn’t hold for the developing world.

August 16, 2019 | By Brenden Jackson

A Case for Imperfect Cities: Greater Impact with Purposeful Chaos
非理性城市开发：寻求效率和影响力的平衡

As we consider the future of cities, we must also be cognizant of the forces of change that will impact how we design and plan for connectivity between people.
在我们思考城市的未来时，我们还必须认识到影响我们如何设计和规划人与人之间联系的变革性力量。

August 09, 2019 | By Peter Weingarten

Creating an Organizational Appetite for Sustainable Design

As people’s attitudes towards sustainability evolve alongside new modes of working, there is a real need for organizations to be intentional about how they implement any new changes.

August 06, 2019 | By Joelle Jach, Elise Redetzke

Designing for Each Learner Through Digital Experience

As we design spaces for learning it is imperative that we integrate digital experiences into them thoughtfully; to connect people, accommodating different learners, and with future-proofing in mind.

August 01, 2019 | By Meghan Webster, Michael Shaub, Patricia Nobre

Growing Biopharma Trend: Putting Science on Display

In the highly competitive research landscape centered around New Jersey, biopharmaceutical companies are aligning these values by moving the laboratory front and center, and putting their science on display.

July 25, 2019 | By Brenda Nyce-Taylor

Did Your Building Grow With BOMA 2017 Office?

Developers, landlords, and building owners have been adding balconies, patios, and other outdoor amenities to keep up with tenant demand, but the trend is creating some confusion and leasing challenges.

July 23, 2019 | By Mitch Luehring, Jane Stull

Why Smart Cities Might Not Perform as Well as 'Dumb' Ones

University of Toronto civil and mineral engineering professor Shoshanna Saxe articulates some serious concerns about the bureaucratic and logistical ramifications of smart cities — ones that should give us all pause.

July 17, 2019 | By Brenden Jackson

10 Key Design Interventions for a Healthier, Happier, and More Productive Workplace

Healthy, happier people are more productive, more likely to collaborate, and more likely to innovate in ways that benefit the bottom line.

July 12, 2019 | By Kirsten Ritchie

Can Machines Design?

Instead of debating about whether machines can design, why don’t we ask: What if they could? How might architecture change if computers take over the process entirely?

July 10, 2019 | By Lance Hosey

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.

July 02, 2019 | By Kathleen Carey

Managing for Creativity

As our world becomes more urbanized and connected, a company’s competitiveness and speed determine success. To keep up with the robust pace and dynamics of our environment, every organization needs to creatively innovate while delivering value to the bottom line.

June 28, 2019 | By Diane Hoskins

Designing the Unexpected

Gensler San Francisco gathered a diverse panel of experts to consider the questions we should all be asking ourselves: does city life make us happy? Are our anxiety levels increasing? Are we starving for more human connection?

June 27, 2019 | By Barry Bourbon

Building a More Inclusive University Environment

Small universities are having a hard time providing physical space for their diverse student populations. These campuses are often landlocked and lacking the enormous budgets of some of their larger counterparts. This raises the question: how can smaller universities support inclusion at a small scale while yielding a large impact?

June 25, 2019 | By Joey Favaloro

Every City Has a Brand

A city's brand originates from the people who make its neighborhoods rich with personality, values, and promises. Each of us is a brand ambassador for our city, and collectively we create shared experiences that define who we are, and who we want to be.

June 21, 2019 | By Amy Bixler

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.

June 20, 2019 | By Kathleen Carey

Every Place Tells a Story of Belonging

A sense of belonging is essential to our ability to thrive, but today’s rapidly changing social landscape poses new obstacles for civic and cultural institutions in cities around the world. How can we seek to understand these obstacles and work to erase the boundaries between people?

June 19, 2019 | By Allison Marshall, Patricia Nobre, Bevin Savage-Yamazaki

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.

June 17, 2019 | By Elaine Asal, Joshua Barthel

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 Tim Hudson

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

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

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

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 Tim Hudson

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

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

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 Tim Hudson

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 Tim Hudson

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 | By Anthony Brower, Wyatt Frantom

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 | By Dylan Jones, Jaymes Dunsmore

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 | By Brenden Jackson

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 | By Julie Henline

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 | By Ryan Cavanaugh

2018 Gensler Design Excellence Awards

Now in its 19th 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 | By Joan Meyers