The sun never sets on Gensler. One can visit their website and watch in real time as the bell curve of night fails to shadow all 46 of their office locations. Founded in 1965 by M. Arthur J. Gensler Jr., the firm has grown to employ over 4,500 people in 16 different countries. It’s the kind of sprawling, vast enterprise that draws more analogies to historic tea companies than design firms. How can an architecture firm of this size maintain a unified studio culture? Or should it?
Like a family, studio culture is a simultaneously public and private thing. Its idiosyncrasies are known only to those who are directly involved, but its influence is felt by the outside community. Studio culture is not only about manners and the maintenance of a certain kind of work ethic, but the precise ways in which staff view aesthetics and process. According to Julia Simet, Managing Director and Principal at Gensler, the company maintains cohesion across thousands of employees by way of adhering to one core cultural principle: an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
... the company maintains cohesion across thousands of employees by way of adhering to one core cultural principle: an enthusiasm for entrepreneurship.
“Entrepreneurship” may seem like an overly broad way to categorize a studio culture, but for a design firm that is now entering its 50th year, Gensler’s self-described ethos seems accountable. The company has comfortably weathered numerous boom and bust cycles in a profession notorious for employment mood swings. From how and when they open new offices (next to big clients) to the candidate screening process (they want people who actively seek out new architectural markets) to their own website branding (a graphic juxtaposes a desk lamp and a skyscraper as if they were products from a catalog), Gensler demonstrates Fortune 500-level strategizing. This scope, and the firm’s purposeful material branding, signals a desire to master every level and aspect of design, which is the thrust of entrepreneurship; always expanding, always seeking new territories and challenges.
But how does a firm with such a thrust manage to keep a cohesive design sensibility, and not break off into dozens of empowered yet vacillating aesthetic branches? In other words, from a designer’s perspective, how fulfilling is it to work at Gensler? As an architect who wished to remain anonymous told me, Gensler’s reputation in terms of personal job satisfaction among architects employed there varies both by the specific career and geographical office. “In Seattle: ‘I’m an interior designer and I got a great job! I work at Gensler,' or ‘I’m an architect but I could just as easily have been an accountant for the DMV. I work at Gensler.’ In New York City: ‘I work at a big firm. Gensler.’ In LA: ‘I work at Gensler! They’re doing some really interesting things lately! Really! I promise! No, they are!’”
Perhaps the best answer to this question comes from the work itself. Free of PR pep talks and employee laments, the skyscrapers (Shanghai), renovations (Myriad Botanical Gardens) and interior design (Facebook’s Menlo Park HQ), speak of a design sensibility that is tasteful if not necessarily iconic, economic without being skimpy, colorful without being shocking. It is a sensibility that is never objectionable because it isn’t trying to make a statement. Perhaps Gensler’s studio culture has expanded to its current size because it represents the median sensibility of an entire class of talented if not particularly visionary individuals. There’s nothing wrong with giving the people what they want, and arguably, that’s the purpose of every business: to satisfy its customer base.
Perhaps Gensler’s studio culture has expanded to its current size because it represents the median sensibility of an entire class of talented if not particularly visionary individuals.
In order to keep all employees on the same design spectrum, the company’s “G.O. (Gensler Orientation) Program” is a multi-day process for new employees designed to foster connection and cohesion. Regardless of the size of the office, on the first day of the G.O. Program, the new employee is paired with an experienced employee, who takes them out to lunch and introduces them to their fellow team members. In hub offices, groups of employees who start at the same time form a kind of class or cohort, which engenders a family atmosphere. “New offices are opened by inside folks who understand the culture and vibrancy of Gensler,” Julia Simet explains, “and who have trained within the leadership program or under team leaders.”
Ironically, it was the opening of just such a new office that inspired R & A Architecture and Design to break away from Gensler and open their own business. The firm, which was launched in 2013 by Benjamin Anderson and Christian Robert, has been partly shaped by both men’s experience working at Gensler. For Christian, his year and a half spent helping to start and then run a small San Diego Gensler satellite office (with a total staff of about twenty people) made him realize that “you can really start small with a corporate background if you do great work and work well with clients. There’s certainly an entrepreneurial culture that helped us develop and select those skills.” Since opening its doors in 2013, R & A now employs fourteen people, has half a dozen active multi-unit residential housing projects in Los Angeles, and is adding a third principal.
According to Simet, the most important characteristic of any Gensler employee, even among designers, is an entrepreneurial spirit. While there is no litmus test for said spirit, it apparently manifests in people who are passionate about learning, a quality that’s often visible in their portfolios. As Benjamin Anderson, who was instrumental in developing Gensler’s Computational Design Group in 2006 out of the Los Angeles office notes, “At Gensler, you can’t just do one thing. My experience was Gensler’s was a big enough place that if you’re a self-starter, if you develop initiatives, there’s no one there to tell you ‘no,’ once you’ve been identified as somebody who has ideas and who really wants to get them accomplished.”
To reach this upper tier Gensler employees must also demonstrate a willingness to “step into that space” of leadership, as Julia Simet puts it. How does the company find candidates who embody this characteristic? It’s partly a process of learning how to spot potential and partly one of focused development, overseen by the founder himself. Although the company started out focused on interior design, it has now expanded to virtually every facet of the design canon. For his part, the relatively media-shy Gensler Jr. still regularly attends select client meetings and helps foster the next generation of leadership within the company at so-called Super Meetings. During these sessions, 24 intermediate employees with 7-12 years of leadership experience work in teams of six, formulating business and product plans. Arthur critiques the plans when they are approximately fifty percent finished.
“You can’t teach ambition,” Simet explains, although it would seem that Gensler has found a way to replicate it, thousands of times over.
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For up-to-the-minute job listings, please visit Archinect's job board, and keep an eye out for future installments of the "EMPLOY(ED)" series. We'll be exploring all aspects of employment, from managerial concerns to portfolio tips to the day-to-day studio culture of some of the world's largest firms. To read previous articles in this series, click here.
Julia Ingalls is primarily an essayist. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Slate, Salon, Dwell, Guernica, The LA Weekly, The Nervous Breakdown, Forth, Trop, and 89.9 KCRW. She's into it.
24 Comments
Ok, great thats two of the "interesting" buildings that Genlser has done lately - any more?
Perhaps you could explain a bit more the supposed tension referenced in this passage
"manage to keep a cohesive design sensibility, and not break off into dozens of empowered yet vacillating aesthetic branches? In other words, from a designer’s perspective, how fulfilling is it to work at Gensler?"
Is the idea that a cohesive design/culture reduces the level of fulfillment, since it doesn't grant individual branches/designers freedom to be "designers"? And what does that have to do with "Entrepreneurship"? Are you suggesting "Entrepreneurship" is how they get to express their freedom as designers?
Sameolddoctor: Technically, three projects are referenced in the text, but I understand math isn't an architect's strong suit.
Nam: At what architectural firms have you worked, and what position(s) did you hold there?
I dont believe in group art...oxymoron...group design is not artful because groups are not artists...they are the average of many individual artists...dilluted like mixing the soup of many chefs...that is the aesthetic of corporate architecture...and probably why is is so safe and banal...
Groups can produce more efficient designs though...soul sucking but efficient...
@Julia, what does that have to do with my question? I am not saying I have some inside understanding. Just asking for some clarification re: what you wrote and meant by it. As my profile makes clear I haven't worked at any.
No need to be so defensive.
Julia, go get a job at Gensler before starting to wax poetic about entrepreneurial spirit in their employees. Yes, you mentioned three projects, but what I am trying to imply is that the third one (Facebook interiors) is not really groundbreaking in any way.
It is clear YOU havent worked in firms of this magnitude. so calm down before you start validating the dogshit you have spewed in your article.
I have worked at Gensler, and I could translate for you what "entrepreneurial" means in their culture. It is how they get away with no providing proper support (be it technical knowledge or software training, libraries, etc.) to the staff and then put it on them to figure it out on their own. They expect employees to put together committees to create detail libraries, or research digital delivery tools and processes on their own time (after hours mostly), because they don't want to pay professionals to do it right.
Some offices are better than others, but trust me the resources and design vision is not consistent or unified at Gensler. For example, the LA office is more "design oriented," the Houston office is more of a production house, etc. They typically work on projects with multiple offices to reduce cost by staffing from offices in cities with lower cost of living.
Don't fall for the marketing, which is one thing they do better than any other architecture firm out there.
when did Gensler get so big? I feel like I never heard of them until 10 years ago, then suddenly they were everywhere? Was it organic growth or have they been buying up local firms to expand?
@midlander according to this May 2015 article, their growth is not a result of M&As
"Gensler has grown to 5,000 employees in 46 offices, with annual revenues of $1 billion, without acquiring. That's because, Hoskins says, “it's very challenging to merge companies and create a consistent culture.” Cramer, who consults on M&As, adds, “acquisitions are too often looked at as a financial transaction rather than a strategic transformation.” He thinks about half are shaky."
samolddoctor: Classy.
Nam: I haven't worked for Gensler, but I did work in a studio of 200, and have worked in two smaller studios of 10 and about 15. That's why I was wondering how many design teams you've worked with, and how you've interacted with designers. Based on my personal observations, it's tricky to keep a cohesive vision among 200, let alone 4,500. I don't think "entreprenuership" is a good way for designers to express an asethetic sensibility; I think it asks the architect to put aside aesthetic concerns and focus on business, which leads to the kind of competent but not particularly iconic design I highlight in this article. But man: it apparently is the best business model.
Julia, you don't seem to indicate anywhere your past experience in there different architectural firms...
https://www.linkedin.com/pub/julia-ingalls/16/64/1b9
Julia, sorry for the "classy" post. The fact is that your article comes across as a bit too patronizing, though in reality it is quite the Sausage Factory to work in. Hence the questions about whether you have worked there before.
knoa: Purposefully so. I realized after those experiences that I am a writer with an architectural past, not an architect who also writes. Rest assured: the firms show up on my tax records (and in references throughout my published work, if you read closely).
sameolddoctor: Apology accepted. I take it from this post that you have worked at Gensler, in which case, I'd be intrigued to hear you describe your experiences. What position did you hold? How long did you work there? How would you describe the culture?
@Julia, i would be curious what kind of job you had at an architectural studio, if your only degree is history (given that is mine as well)
Also, I feel like this isn't necessarily unique to architect
"Based on my personal observations, it's tricky to keep a cohesive vision among 200, let alone 4,500."
Even in my line of work on non "design" specific teams articulating/keeping a cohesive vision is difficult but not impossible with the right leadership and balance of autonomy.
Finally, perhaps I missed it but re:
I don't think "entreprenuership" is a good way for designers to express an asethetic sensibility
I certainly didn't pick up a clear criticism of "entrepreneurship" within context of studio culture in the piece. Even the graph with this line "It is a sensibility that is never objectionable because it isn’t trying to make a statement" while critical only seems to be saying this culture may not lead to "iconic" design, which I would think is not directly related to how "fulfilling" working at the firm is for a designer..?
Gensler the Walmart of the real estate development industry. If they could have self checkout aisle they would.
Thanks Nam, good link.
They might not like to state it so openly but I think a large firm like Gensler probably intends to avoid having a coherent design vision. They actually do want to be everything to anybody, and doing so lets them be big without getting typecast. They can do high profile work, they can do interiors, they can do non-design coordination work, they can do the small and ordinary stuff that a more focused firm like SOM needs to pass on.
The original article reads like a press release for Gensler. As someone who also writes for this website and other print and online publications, I would encourage you to be a little more critical or talk to multiple people within the firm.
Never mind the article...Julia, put the claws away. How can you, as a person who went through design or journalism school, worked in a large firm and now writes for a living be so poor at taking criticism...
Once you hit "print" or "send"...it's time to move on to the next piece. Not dwell on the boards and defend your points.
why don't you guys just burn the writer at the stake and get it over with? Novice, nice play on bringing the word "claws" out. Always fun when being confronting a woman, grin. How many points is that? Knoa, very cool on the linkedin link! some would find it creepy, but its really cool how you went right in to google her. revitmonk, as an ex-gensler employee, yeah total agreement with you on how it really all goes down. archanonymous, i am impressed that you chose to blast your fellow archinect writer on an open forum. feedback is really important, but most important when everyone is aware you are giving it. Nam Henderson, really can't give you any comments because your questions were so incredibly boring. jia-x, have you ever had a job at all? you seem to post in every thread, and every post seems so... naive?
oh yeah, and sameolddoctor, put your claws away too, bad online look. what dogshit have you worked on lately? lol must be a busy day at the office for everyone.
That's not a studio, it's a factory.
raptureuk, you seem to be Mr. Gensler. Fuck off.
if it's a factory, it's a quite progressive one, considering it's employee owned.
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