Public Architecture is a national 501(c)(3) charitable organization based in San Francisco, CA. The organization mobilizes designers to transform communities by putting design in the service of the public good [1] The organization is the leading advocate and facilitator of pro bono practice in the design field through The 1% [2] program. Public Architecture also takes on its own projects that expand the social relevance of design, including a prototypical station for day laborers, open space strategies, and advocacy around the issue of material reuse. The organization has partnered with and worked for a number of renowned nonprofits, including KIPP Schools, International Planned Parenthood , United Way and Habitat for Humanity . The organization's work has been featured in the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Huffington Post, GOOD, Dwell, Architect, Metropolis, and many others. Public Architecture was founded in 2002 by architect John Peterson of Peterson Architects.
33-482: The 1% program is a call to action for professionals of the built environment to pledge a minimum of 1% of their time to pro bono service. Through The 1% website, firms can identity and locate nonprofits across the country in need of design services. Conversely, nonprofits enrolled in the program can find designers in their area willing to give of their time. As the program grows, it aims to connect design firms, nonprofits, manufacturers, and funders to collaborate and improve
66-517: A $ 10 million gift to Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning as an endowment for the college's New York City satellite program, which Gensler co-created in 2006 with the then dean of the college, Mohsen Mostafavi . As a result of the gift, AAP NYC will be renamed to the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center. In 1957, Gensler married Drue Cortell; they have four sons, David, Douglas, Robert, and Kenneth. David Gensler
99-612: A city” in Las Vegas), SFO Airport (beginning with the Central Terminal project in 1980 and continuing with comprehensive T2, T3, and T1 renovations), and Shanghai Tower (a 128-story mixed-use tower). In 2013, the 2,073-foot Shanghai Tower became China's tallest building, and the second-tallest in the world. In 2023 Gensler undertook the office-to-residential conversion of 160 Water Street in Manhattan's Financial District . The project
132-542: A memorial to Donald G. Brinkmann, a gifted interior designer and former partner at Gensler. In 2007, the firm established its gServe community impact program. Gensler's Community Impact program encourages offices to dedicate at least 80 percent of their Community Impact resources to one or more of four themes: Housing and Homelessness, Health and Wellness, the Environment, and the Next Generation. In 2015, Gensler signed
165-608: A switchboard operator for the telephone company. He attended high school in Hartford, Connecticut , after the family moved there, and earned his B.Arch. degree in 1958 from Cornell University , where he played soccer and tennis and was a member of the Delta Phi fraternity ( Llenroc ). In 1962, Gensler moved to San Francisco, where in 1965 he and his wife, Drue Gensler, along with James Follet, founded M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates Inc., now known as Gensler . As of May 2021
198-458: Is a prototypical structure, which will be used to house day laborers as they wait for employers to provide them with temporary work. The Station is a flexible structure that is designed to be deployed at informal day labor locations. The structure utilizes green building materials and strategies and will exist primarily off-the-grid . The design is based on findings from a series of interviews with day laborers conducted by Public Architecture, and
231-747: Is expected to yield 588 residential rental units and has been applauded by politicians such as Mayor Eric Adams as well as activists concerned with the city's lack of housing. In 2005, Gensler debuted its first U.K. Workplace Survey, followed by a U.S. Workplace Survey in 2006, and the formal establishment of the Gensler Research program in 2007. The firm launched subsequent U.S. & U.K. Workplace Surveys in 2008, 2013, and 2016. Gensler's Workplace Surveys now encompass five continents, with surveys in Australia, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Latin America,
264-443: Is launching new green specifications that focus on reducing high-carbon materials. Gensler's “Impact Through Design” report, launched in 2016, explores strategies for architecture and design to play a greater role in global climate change strategy and mitigation, reinforcing this commitment to sustainability with the firm's subsequent “Impact by Design” reports in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 2023, Gensler announced
297-469: Is meant to respond to the needs and desires of the day laborers as clients. The structure is designed to be flexible enough to serve various uses, including as an employment center, meeting space, and classroom, and become a prototype for similar conditions (i.e. 1-1 Day Labor Station-installation at AAO Benaki Museum curated by Lina Stergiou ). A portion of the first prototype of the Day Labor Station
330-631: Is on display at the “Design for the Other 90%” exhibition at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum in New York from May 4 through September 23, 2007. The Sidewalk Plazas project is Public Architecture's proposal to create parking-space sized open spaces, increasing the amount of open and green space in San Francisco's former-light-industrial-turned-mixed-use South of Market Area and related urban areas across
363-719: The American Institute of Architects . In 2009, Gensler became the first firm inducted into the Interior Design Hall of Fame. Gensler received the AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture for the HyundaiCard Air Lounge in 2012 and the Jackson Hole Airport in 2014. For the third year in a row, Forbes included Gensler among “America’s Best Midsize Employers” in 2018. Gensler received
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#1732859035126396-449: The #1 ranking in 2023. For the 42nd consecutive year, Gensler received the highest ranking on Interior Design magazine's “Top 100 Giants” list in 2023. In 2023, Gensler maintained the top position on Architectural Record’s Top 300 Architecture Firms for the 12th consecutive year. The AIA honoured Gensler’s repositioning of Willis Tower with the 2023 AIA National Interior Architecture Award and awarded adaptive reuse project 633 Folsom
429-588: The 2023 AIA National Architecture Award. The Center for Active Design awarded Gensler with as the company with the “Most Ambassadors” (All Time), as the company with the most Fitwel Accredited staff, in the 2023 Best in Building Health Awards. For the ninth consecutive year, Gensler received the #1 rank overall in Building Design's 2024 World Architecture 100 rankings. Art Gensler Millard Arthur Gensler Jr. (July 12, 1935 – May 10, 2021)
462-537: The Alcoa Building (1967) and the Bank of America Building (1969), both in San Francisco. The firm has since diversified into numerous forms of architecture and design, including commercial office buildings, retail centers, airports, education facilities, entertainment complexes, planning and urban design, mission-critical facilities, consulting, brand design, and other areas. Gensler grew rapidly with offices opening around
495-523: The Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, UPCycle, and Etsy headquarters for integrating design excellence and sustainable performance. Gensler received the #1 rank overall in Building Design's 2021 World Architecture 100 Rankings. For a decade, Gensler has topped Architectural Record's annual list of the Top 300 Architecture Firms in the U.S. For the third year, Fast Company named Gensler among
528-521: The Gensler Experience Index, which quantifies the direct impact design has on experience, followed by industry reports in the Education, Healthcare, Residential, Retail, and Hospitality sectors. In 2020, the firm launched Gensler's City Pulse Survey, surveying residents in four cities during lockdown due to COVID-19, followed by another City Pulse Survey in 2021, surveying 10 cities to see how
561-592: The Middle East, U.K., and the U.S. In 2010, Gensler's research program secured a registered trademark for its Workplace Performance Index (WPI), a trademarked pre- and post-occupancy tool. In 2017, Gensler celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Gensler Research Program (now the Gensler Research Institute) with the publication of Gensler's Research Catalogue, Volume 2. In 2017, the firm launched
594-602: The Paris Pledge for Action at the COP21 conference , pledging to reduce carbon emissions to limit climate change to less than 2 degrees Celsius. At the U.N. Climate Action Summit in 2019, Co-CEO Diane Hoskins announced the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3), which challenges the architecture and design industry to eliminate all greenhouse gases associated with the built environment. To further that pledge, Gensler
627-501: The U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s and then overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. In 1972, the firm established an office in Houston to provide interior design services for Pennzoil Company's 600,000-sq-ft corporate headquarters. In 1979, the firm opened its New York office to provide interior design and production services for Mobil Oil Corporation's corporate headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia. In 1988,
660-782: The book presents 40 pro bono design projects across the country. The clients include grassroots community organizations like the Homeless Prenatal Program of San Francisco, as well as national and international nonprofits, among them Goodwill, Habitat for Humanity, and KIPP Schools. These public-interest projects were designed by a range of award-winning practices, from SHoP Architects in New York and Studio Gang in Chicago, to young studios including Stephen Dalton Architects in Southern California and Hathorne Architects in Detroit, to some of
693-603: The country. This plan has earned support from the San Francisco Planning Department, Redevelopment Agency, and Transportation Authority, and funds are being sought to implement a series of Sidewalk Plazas along Folsom Street in SoMa . ScrapHouse was temporary demonstration house, constructed and displayed in front of San Francisco City Hall as a part of World Environment Day in 2005. It was constructed completely from salvage materials donated by local businesses, and
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#1732859035126726-424: The firm celebrated its 50th anniversary. After serving as Co-CEOs for nearly 20 years, Cohen and Hoskins became Gensler’s first Global Co-Chairs in 2024, and the firm named Jordan Goldstein and Elizabeth Brink as the new co-CEOs . As the firm's global footprint has grown, Gensler has launched megaprojects such as CityCenter (Gensler served as Executive Architect of the 67-acre, 18 million-square-foot “city within
759-588: The firm had 5,000 employees in 50 cities around the world. It covers 28 aspects of design under separate specializations and is decentralized, with no headquarters; it retains a hub in San Francisco . Gensler himself personally designed only one building for a client, the original Apple Store , at Steve Jobs 's insistence. While Gensler stepped down as the firm's chairman in 2010, he continued to work as an adviser. Gensler published his first book, Art's Principles , in 2015. In January 2021, Art Gensler made
792-748: The firm launched its first overseas office in London, followed by new offices in Tokyo and Hong Kong in 1993. In 2002, Gensler opened an office in Shanghai, establishing a permanent presence in China. By the early 2000s, Gensler was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. In 2005, Gensler's board of directors extended the firm's collaborative leadership structure by naming Andy Cohen , Diane Hoskins, and David Gensler as executive directors/Co-CEOs. Cohen and Hoskins continue their tenure as Co-CEOs. In 2015,
825-521: The highest ranking on Interior Design magazine's “Top 100 Giants” list. Gensler was included among Glassdoor's Best Places to Work 2020. The National Center for Employee Ownership named Gensler the 21st largest employee-owned company in the U.S. on the NCEO 2020 Employee Ownership 100. The AIA Committee on the Environment named three Gensler projects winners of the COTE Top Ten Awards, recognizing
858-590: The infrastructure of America's nonprofits. In March 2011, the program had over 900 participating firms, donating $ 28million in design services annually. The firms range from sole practitioners to some of the largest firms in the country, including Gensler , HoK, and Perkins+Will . In October 2010, Public Architecture released The Power of Pro Bono: 40 Stories of Design for the Public Good by Architects and Their Clients through Metropolis Books. Edited by longtime, former executive director, John Cary and Public Architecture,
891-667: The launch of the Gensler Product Sustainability (GPS) Standards. Starting in January 2024, the standards will be required for all Gensler projects in the U.S., Canada, and Europe. At COP28, Gensler partnered with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to jointly expand low-carbon building certification and access to green finance. Gensler was awarded the Architecture Firm Award in 2000 by
924-597: The nation's largest firms. Scores of private donors, local community foundations and companies, and material and service donations made these projects possible. So have some of the most progressive funders in the country, ranging from Brad Pitt's Make It Right Foundation in New Orleans to the Robin Hood Foundation in New York. Taken as a whole, the selected works represent six general categories: Arts, Civic, Community, Education, Health and Housing. The Day Labor Station
957-561: The pandemic has reshaped urban life. In 1990, Gensler established Gensler University, the firm's chief platform for leadership development. Subsequently, the firm established the Diversity Scholarship, a juried program that recognizes emerging talent among African-American college students enrolled in an accredited architectural program, and the Gensler Brinkmann Scholarship Fund, which was established in 1999 as
990-486: The world by revenue and number of architects. In 2022, Gensler generated $ 1.785 billion in revenue, the most of any architecture firm in the U.S. As of late 2023, Gensler operated offices in 53 cities in 17 countries worldwide, working for clients in over 100 countries. Art Gensler founded the firm in 1965, along with his wife Drue Gensler and their associate James Follett. They originally focused on corporate interiors, for newly constructed office buildings including
1023-550: The “World’s Most Innovative Companies 2021” as one of the 10 Most Innovative Companies in Architecture. Fast Company ranked Gensler among the 100 Best Workplaces for Innovators in 2021, recognizing the firm's new proprietary NFORM Ecosystem. Engineering News-Record ranked Gensler as the #1 Top Green Design Firm for six consecutive years, from 2016-2021. The firm was second in the latest ranking in September 2022. The firm regained
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1056-682: Was an American architect and entrepreneur. He was best known for founding Gensler , the world's largest architecture firm. The firm's most prominent works include the terminals at the San Francisco International Airport and Shanghai Tower , the second-tallest building in the world. Millard Arthur Gensler Jr. was born in 1935 in the New York City. borough of Brooklyn . Gensler's father was Millard Arthur Gensler, Sr., a.k.a. "Slats", an architectural sales representative who sold ceiling tiles. His mother, Gertrude Gensler, worked as
1089-469: Was built in six weeks by a volunteer work-force. Emmy Award-winning documentarian Anna Fitch conceived of the project, and filmed the entire process for a documentary film that aired on the National Geographic Channel in September 2006. Gensler Gensler is a global design and architecture firm headquartered in San Francisco , California. It is the largest architecture firm in
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