Gensler
Organization Overview
Founded in downtown San Francisco 60 years ago, Gensler is
leveraging their deep roots in the city with global insights to not only
drive the city’s ongoing recovery, but also to provide a design platform for
evolution toward a more inclusive, resilient, and vibrant future.
When Gensler committed to a 12-year lease during the pandemic, they
cast strategic vision for how they can positively impact the city. Their
home in the historic Mills Building functions as a civic platform—facilitating
the ACE Mentor Program and convening community partners for events
focused on sustainability, housing, and DEI, In collaboration with the
Chamber of Commerce, they also redeveloped the building’s ground floor
into a coffee shop and flexible event venue.
They believe that businesses should be destinations that engage with and
improve upon the civic fabric. Their AIA award-winning building transition
work speaks to the execution of these values; 633 Folsom, Embarcadero
Center and Dandelion Chocolate exemplify impactful placemaking within
existing framework.
This approach carries into their efforts to address housing. With
DignityMoves, they have served 1,940 residents with scalable interim housing
that revitalizes underused spaces. At the urban scale, their collaborations
with SPUR and ULI and their office-to-residential conversion feasibility
studies have helped shape policy conversations, demonstrating how
design thinking can unlock new pathways for adaptive reuse across the
city.They've also extended the same strategies to SFO, imbuing their extensive
work there with the spirit of the city. Projects such as Harvey Milk Terminal
embody the locally rooted strategy which positions architecture as both
gateway and storyteller, crafting an experience that is not only efficient and
sustainable, but deeply expressive of San Francisco’s cultural and civic
identity.
leveraging their deep roots in the city with global insights to not only
drive the city’s ongoing recovery, but also to provide a design platform for
evolution toward a more inclusive, resilient, and vibrant future.
When Gensler committed to a 12-year lease during the pandemic, they
cast strategic vision for how they can positively impact the city. Their
home in the historic Mills Building functions as a civic platform—facilitating
the ACE Mentor Program and convening community partners for events
focused on sustainability, housing, and DEI, In collaboration with the
Chamber of Commerce, they also redeveloped the building’s ground floor
into a coffee shop and flexible event venue.
They believe that businesses should be destinations that engage with and
improve upon the civic fabric. Their AIA award-winning building transition
work speaks to the execution of these values; 633 Folsom, Embarcadero
Center and Dandelion Chocolate exemplify impactful placemaking within
existing framework.
This approach carries into their efforts to address housing. With
DignityMoves, they have served 1,940 residents with scalable interim housing
that revitalizes underused spaces. At the urban scale, their collaborations
with SPUR and ULI and their office-to-residential conversion feasibility
studies have helped shape policy conversations, demonstrating how
design thinking can unlock new pathways for adaptive reuse across the
city.They've also extended the same strategies to SFO, imbuing their extensive
work there with the spirit of the city. Projects such as Harvey Milk Terminal
embody the locally rooted strategy which positions architecture as both
gateway and storyteller, crafting an experience that is not only efficient and
sustainable, but deeply expressive of San Francisco’s cultural and civic
identity.