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
| Apr 25, 2013
Colorado State University, DLR Group team to study 12 high-performance schools
DLR Group and the Institute for the Built Environment at Colorado State University have collaborated on a research project to evaluate the effect of green school design on occupants and long-term building performance.
| Apr 24, 2013
More positive momentum for Architecture Billings Index
All regions and building sectors continue to report positive business conditions
| Apr 24, 2013
North Carolina bill would ban green rating systems that put state lumber industry at disadvantage
North Carolina lawmakers have introduced state legislation that would restrict the use of national green building rating programs, including LEED, on public projects.
| Apr 24, 2013
Los Angeles may add cool roofs to its building code
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants cool roofs added to the city’s building code. He is also asking the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to create incentives that make it financially attractive for homeowners to install cool roofs.
| Apr 23, 2013
Building material innovation: Concrete cloth simplifies difficult pours
Milliken recently debuted a flexible fabric that allows for concrete installations on slopes, in water, and in other hard to reach places—without the need for molds or mixing.
| Apr 23, 2013
Architects to MoMA: Don't destroy Williams/Tsien project
Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy and Robert A.M. Stern are among the prominent architects who on Monday called for the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum.
| Apr 22, 2013
Top 10 green building projects for 2013 [slideshow]
The AIA's Committee on the Environment selected its top ten examples of sustainable architecture and green design solutions that protect and enhance the environment.
| Apr 19, 2013
Is LED lighting keeping its promises?
Lighting experts debate the benefits, drawbacks, and issues related to specifying LED fixtures.
| Apr 19, 2013
Must see: Shell of gutted church on stilts, 40 feet off the ground
Construction crews are going to extremes to save the ornate brick façade of the Provo (Utah) Tabernacle temple, which was ravaged by a fire in December 2010.