Art Gensler, FAIA, FIIDA, RIBA, cofounder of Gensler, the world’s largest architecture firm, passed away Monday morning at his home in Mill Valley, Calif., at the age of 85.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Gensler had been battling lung disease over the last 18 months.
The firm was originally called M. Arthur Gensler Jr. and Associates, when Gensler, his wife Drucilla, and James Follett, a draftsperson, started the company in 1965. Gensler is widely credited with creating the blueprint for how professional service firms are organized and managed. He led Gensler until 2005, when the company’s Board of Directors introduced its current co-leadership management structure. He stepped down as chairman in 2010 though continued serving as an advisor to the firm for seven more years.
During his leadership tenure, Gensler saw the firm expand into a full-service practice whose interdisciplinary approach he helped craft. The firm that Art Gensler founded currently serves 28 practice areas from 50 offices around the globe. The company’s revenue hit $1.55 billion in 2020, continuing an upward trend that dated to 2010. Gensler is 100% owned by its 5,200 employees through direct shares and its ESOP plan.
In its 2020 annual report, Gensler stated that in 2019 alone its employees had worked on more than 7,000 projects representing over 1.5 billion sf of space. Its portfolio that year was designed to save over 16 million tons of CO2 emissions.
“Art’s lasting legacy is an ethos that only he could have created—a standard that allowed the firm to grow and prosper,” wrote Gensler’s co-CEOs Diane Hoskins, FAIA, NCARB, and Andy Cohen, FAIA, IIDA, in a remembrance they posted this evening. They added that Gensler championed an adaptive, proactive, and client-focused approach “that treated service as a privilege and clients as partners.”
ORIGINALLY FOCUSED ON OFFICE INTERIORS
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1935, Gensler earned a degree from Cornell University’s College of Architecture in 1958. Upon graduation, he worked for architecture firms in New York and Jamaica. He and his wife Drue migrated to California in the early 1960s, where Gensler worked for a few architectural firms, including Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons. While at Wurster, he played a vanguard role establishing design standards for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, then under construction.
When he opened his own shop, Gensler initially pioneered interiors for new office buildings. The firm started expanding domestically in the 1970s and 1980s, and then internationally in the ‘80s and ‘90s. (Among his accolades, Gensler was a professional member of the Royal Institute of British Architects.)
In 2015, he published Art’s Principles, which chronicled his 50 years in business and lessons learned. The book covers such topics as leadership, talent acquisitions and growth strategies.
Last January, Gensler made a $10 million gift to Cornell’s College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, whose program he helped create in 2006. As a result of that gift, the New York City location will be renamed the Gensler Family AAP NYC Center.
Gensler was predeceased by his wife, who died in 2017. He is survived by four sons and their families, 10 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter.
Related Stories
| Jul 28, 2014
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HDR, and HOK top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 28, 2014
LEO A DALY hires Peter Yakowicz to oversee VA projects
New hire will work with healthcare and federal market sectors on programs specifically for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
| Jul 28, 2014
Peterson Associates joins forces with KSQ Architects
Move creates Charlotte, N.C., office with expertise in higher education, K-12, multifamily, and healthcare.
| Jul 28, 2014
Post Tower Wins CTBUH 10-Year Award
The 10 Year Award recognizes proven value and performance in a tall building, across one or more of a wide range of criteria, over a period of 10 years since its completion.
| Jul 27, 2014
Maturing ‘plug and play’ sector could take market share from AEC Giants [2014 Giants 300 Report]
The growth of modular and containerized data center solutions may eventually hinder the growth of traditional data center construction services.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Construction Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Holder, Turner, and DPR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center contractors and construction management firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Engineering Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Fluor, Jacobs, and Syska Hennessy top Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center engineering and engineering/architecture firms in the U.S.
| Jul 27, 2014
Top Data Center Architecture Firms [2014 Giants 300 Report]
Gensler, Corgan, and HDR head Building Design+Construction's 2014 ranking of the largest data center architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 25, 2014
Grocery stores choosing Green Globes for building sustainability certification
The Green Building Initiative (GBI) has announced a wave of Green Globes certifications for new grocery stores, including New Seasons Markets, Whole Foods, Price Chopper, Aldi’s, Harris Teeter, Wegmans, and Publix.
