How Gensler responded to such seismic events as the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and social inequality dominates its newly released Annual Report 2020.
Titled “A Time For Transformation,” the 101-page report catalogues how the industry’s largest architecture firm—whose revenue totaled $1.55 billion last year, its 55th in business—has addressed events that, sometimes, were beyond its control.
To keep its projects moving during the pandemic, Gensler moved more than 8,000 to the cloud to allow for ongoing digital collaboration. Its post-pandemic strategies included surveying 2,300 of its employees about working from home (70% of whom said they’d prefer to work in the office the majority of the week); polling residents in four cities—New York, San Francisco, London, and Singapore—last May about their COVID-19 related concerns (one finding: people with children are at least 1.5-times more likely to want to move someplace safer); and posting a steady stream of articles and blogs about this topic.
“The key theme of our thought leadership [is] we must have a new understanding of global wellness that must include social justice, equity and inclusion,” the report states. To that end, the company is following five strategies to fight racism: increase its internal diversity, pursue equitable design solutions, expanding its scholarship program and mentoring of middle and high schoolers, create more job opportunities for Black professionals, and partner with clients on diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Gensler’s Global Race and Diversity Committee, comprised of 22 leaders, oversees the execution of these strategies, and connects with regional committees to amplify the firm’s impact.
The firm is also “doubling down” on its commitment to climate action. In 2019, Gensler professionals worked on more than 7,000 projects representing over 1.5 billion sf of space. Its portfolio that year is designed to save over 16 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, and the firm’s goal is to get to 30 million, and ultimately carbon neutrality within the decade.
LEANING MORE ON TECHNOLOGY
Like most AEC firms, Gensler now champions the application of technology in its design process. The report talks about the firm’s various design tools that include Intelligent Places (which uses data to connect human behavior with space design), inFORM ECOSYSTEM and gblox (which help clients make informed decisions), and its Digital Experience Design service that connects digital and physical design.
Technology also facilitated a month-long global charrette that Gensler opened to everyone in the firm. This is now an ongoing charrette platform.
DESIGN AND COMMUNITY SERVICE HIGHLIGHTED
A confidential technology coworking site in San Francisco's Ferry Building emphasizes the role design plays in human interaction.
Much of the annual report is devoted to highlighting Gensler’s recent projects and concepts. These include a technology coworking site in San Francisco’s Ferry Building that is designed to encourage human connections; Universal Creative Square in Beijing, where Gensler transformed a warehouse into a vibrant office building; and the firm’s concept for Verizon’s Hidden Ridge in Irving, Texas, a 150-acre corporate district that blends three corporate campuses with a mixed-use neighborhood composed of housing, retail and offices, all connected by light rail.
The report calls attention to Gensler’s 15 Design Excellence Award winners in 2019, and its nine Research & Innovation award winners in 2020.
Gensler also touches on how the firm and its employees gave back to their communities. Those efforts included:
•Volunteer fabricators in 22 cities created 3,047 face shields and 1,996 specialty PPE parts that were donated to healthcare workers in U.S. and Costa Rica.
•The firm announced a call to action for each of its 50 offices worldwide to create a measurable change toward equitable housing options beginning in fiscal 2021.
•Its Community Impact model organizes philanthropic and volunteer efforts that target four areas: housing and homelessness, health and wellness, the environment, and the next generation.
Related Stories
| Aug 9, 2022
5 Lean principles of design-build
Simply put, lean is the practice of creating more value with fewer resources.
| Aug 9, 2022
Designing healthy learning environments
Studies confirm healthy environments can improve learning outcomes and student success.
Legislation | Aug 8, 2022
Inflation Reduction Act includes over $5 billion for low carbon procurement
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, recently passed by the U.S. Senate, sets aside over $5 billion for low carbon procurement in the built environment.
| Aug 8, 2022
Mass timber and net zero design for higher education and lab buildings
When sourced from sustainably managed forests, the use of wood as a replacement for concrete and steel on larger scale construction projects has myriad economic and environmental benefits that have been thoroughly outlined in everything from academic journals to the pages of Newsweek.
AEC Tech | Aug 8, 2022
The technology balancing act
As our world reopens from COVID isolation, we are entering back into undefined territory – a form of hybrid existence.
Legislation | Aug 5, 2022
D.C. City Council moves to require net-zero construction by 2026
The Washington, D.C. City Council unanimously passed legislation that would require all new buildings and substantial renovations in D.C. to be net-zero construction by 2026.
Cultural Facilities | Aug 5, 2022
A time and a place: Telling American stories through architecture
As the United States enters the year 2026, it will commence celebrating a cycle of Sestercentennials, or 250th anniversaries, of historic and cultural events across the land.
Sponsored | | Aug 4, 2022
Brighter vistas: Next-gen tools drive sustainability toward net zero line
New technologies, innovations, and tools are opening doors for building teams interested in better and more socially responsible design.
| Aug 4, 2022
Newer materials for green, resilient building complicate insurance underwriting
Insurers can’t look to years of testing on emerging technology to assess risk.
Sustainability | Aug 4, 2022
To reduce disease and fight climate change, design buildings that breathe
Healthy air quality in buildings improves cognitive function and combats the spread of disease, but its implications for carbon reduction are perhaps the most important benefit.
