Gensler is a collaborative team of creative individuals who bring a constructive, strategic and inclusive approach to design.
Art Gensler, along with his wife Drue Gensler and their associate James Follett, founded the firm in 1965. They originally focused on corporate interiors, pioneering interiors for newly constructed office buildings, including 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 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, 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.
