Gensler: Green Space Today’s February 2009 Firm of the Month

Gensler's Executive Directors (left to right: David Gensler, Diane Hoskins, and Andy Cohen) Courtesy of Gensler

Gensler, a worldwide architectural firm is a leader in sustainable design applications. While headquartered in San Francisco (Gensler is a member of The Business Council on Climate Change), Gensler's offices are present in 31 local markets. The firm has received numerous accolades and was ranked 3rd in Engineering News-Record’s first listing of Top Green Design Firms. In this Q & A, all questions were asked by Green Space Today’s Editorial Group and all question were responded by Kirsten Ritchie, P.E., LEED AP, Co-Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler, with the assistance of Rives Taylor, FAIA, LEED AP, Co-Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler.

Why is sustainable design important to you and Gensler at large?

Sustainable design has been part of our DNA from the beginning. We began life as workplace specialists. That means delivering healthy, high-performance settings that work well and look great. Our buildings have always been based on an inside-out/outside-in philosophy of integrated design. Our clients are ROI focused, so we’ve always emphasized the business case for sustainable design. Today, that case is easy to make, both on the operations side and in terms of individual and team performance. It’s also clear that end users expect it, not only in buildings and settings, but in relation to transit access, for example.

Kirsten Ritchie, P.E., LEED AP, Co-Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler Courtesy of Gensler

Our design teams start off each project by walking the client through its opportunities. Our integrated design approach offers the strongest likelihood that the potential that we identify together is achieved.

Do you feel that sustainable design sells? Do Gensler’s clients commonly incorporate sustainable design components to attain ROIs?

We’re seeing more and more data—our own and others—showing an increase in net present value that can be attributed to sustainable design. A range of factors contribute to this, from lower operating costs to higher curb appeal. Owners, brokers, tenants, and insurers have a level of confidence in sustainability that’s making it the standard, not an option, in many cities. We also have much more payback data now to inform decision-making about different sustainable design strategies. Clients prefer to deal with facts.

The key is to get people to think about the full cost of building ownership. Done well, sustainability is a virtuous cycle that benefits the individual, the organization, and the community around them. You’re not only reducing energy costs, but you’re also helping people feel better and perform better. Those gains are harder to measure, but their payback often dwarfs what greater energy efficiency can deliver. Since 2005, Gensler has surveyed the UK and US office workplace to understand how place correlates with organizational and end user performance. Sustainable design definitely enhances performance.

Rives Taylor, FAIA, LEED AP, Co-Director of Sustainable Design, Gensler. Courtesy of Gensler

Gensler recently partnered with the Office of Applied Science at GSA Public Buildings Service, helping them communicate the results of a major study of the best-performing new and newly-renovated GSA-owned federal buildings. That study suggests that when a design team focuses on energy efficiency within an integrated design process, the other dimensions of sustainability will also surface and get addressed. We also focus on early energy-saving strategies, using energy modeling and heuristics. As a global design firm with experience across a wide range of markets, we have a great deal of geographic and market-specific knowledge of the different factors that come into play in sustainable design. While some are consistent across the board, we never assume that “one size fits all.”

What resources have enabled Gensler to be a longtime proponent of sustainable design?

Gensler’s leadership has supported design and delivery innovation since the firm’s founding in 1965. Our work on office energy efficiency, with California’s PG&E in 1970, predates the oil embargo. We look for opportunities to apply promising new tools and methods. An example is Building Information Modeling (BIM), which we adopted and tested early on, then embraced and extended. Sustainable design demands collaboration and BIM supports it. BIM also facilitates energy, daylight, and water-use modeling, brings engineering consultants into the process much earlier, and gives the entire team—client included— real-time feedback on the performance implications of the different strategies they’re exploring. Resources like BIM find their way into projects of every type and scale. They fit well because Gensler is so committed to collaboration.

Gensler’s office in San Francisco, California Eric Laignel Photography

Gensler’s office in San Francisco, California Sherman Takata Photography

Gensler established regional sustainable leadership teams several years ago, charged with developing procedures, tools, and training so that everyone can benefit. Sustainability is an important factor in recruiting and development, supported at the front end by our recruiting practices and, along the way, by learning programs and by collaboration tools that encourage knowledge-sharing on a global basis.

How can other architectural firms offer a higher level of sustainable services during a recessive economy?

In a down economy, repositioning work—for buildings and interiors—increases. That’s an opportunity for cost-effective upgrades that improve operating efficiency and organizational performance. When companies consolidate or downsize, they focus on their best-performing properties. If your building doesn’t fit that description, you’ll think seriously about how to boost its appeal for other tenants. We provide a full range of services to help our clients to right-size their portfolios, evaluate properties, and develop repositioning strategies that incorporate sustainable design. Repositioning is an important way that companies regroup and rebuild morale. Healthy, high-performance settings are a big part of that.  

Designed by Gensler, Nixon Peabody’s space in San Francisco was the first office space (for a law firm) to receive LEED certification. Sherman Takata Photography

Designed by Gensler, Nixon Peabody’s space in San Francisco was the first ever office space (for a law firm) to receive LEED certification. Sherman Takata Photography

What are Gensler’s greatest sustainable accomplishments/projects?

We’re currently designing a super-highrise mixed-use tower in Shanghai that breaks new ground in its sustainability. We’re the design managers of CityCenter, a model of sustainable development in Las Vegas. Our studios are working on at least four major LEED Platinum projects—the number is growing. Perhaps our impactful current work in sustainable design is in the retail sector. The branch banks, auto dealerships, and apparel stores we’re designing are being built in thousands of US locations. We also worked with the U.S. Green Building Council and PNC Bank to apply LEED certification to retail rollout. When sustainable design hits Main Street, you know it’s really arrived. We’ve been part of that process.

What markets (geographically) have become greener through sustainable design within the last 5 years?

There is no question that China, in its big cities, has embraced sustainability in public and increasingly in private projects.  The United Arab Emirates is taking the lead in the Middle East, really pushing a green agenda in new developments there. Western Europe has been a leader for some time. We work there, and our projects worldwide benefit from that experience.

Designed by Gensler, the Letterman Digital Arts Center, The Presidio, San Francisco, CA received LEED Gold certification.

What markets will become greener within the next 5 years and why?

From Canada to Chile and Argentina, the countries of the Americas see the value of sustainable design. My colleagues in our office in San José, Costa Rica, are partnering with the Costa Rican government to advance that agenda. There’s no US city where Gensler has an office that isn’t interested in using resources more efficiently, promoting health in the built environment, and curbing global warming.

The Department of Homeland Security’s space in Omaha, NE (Denver office project) received LEED Gold certification. Kessler

Gensler is a supporter and participant of the U.S. Green Building Council. How is the USGBC perceived in European markets? How will the U.S. Green Building Council sustain credibility in the U.S. and on an international level?

Gensler was asked by a Spanish client to evaluate the different rating systems for green buildings and settings, like LEED and BREEAM. The U.S. Green Building Council comprises industry leaders that are focused on cost-to-value, so LEED has a clear ROI advantage. By addressing a range of applications, it gets around the problems of a protocol that’s too closely tied to a single project type, like housing. USGBC also wins points for pushing LEED out as a global tool, constantly adapting it to new contexts. Even in China, which has its own rating system now, LEED remains an important standard.

The Department of Homeland Security’s space in Omaha, NE (Denver office project) received LEED Gold certification. Kessler

Should the public or private sector be the leader of the green industry? How can government, businesses, and academia work together to efficiently spearhead the green movement?

The adage that business has to lead the way is true for sustainable design and delivery. The US is an entrepreneurial society characterized by pragmatic, can-do thinking. Federal mandates and pending federal recovery measures will increase the public sector’s focus on this issue. We see this already with GSA—they’ve done a terrific job of documenting and publicizing integrated sustainable design’s ROI. Those proof statements, from the nation’s biggest landlord, are influencing states, counties, and cities. The private sector has also gotten the message. Companies like Bank of America and Hewlett Packard, both Gensler clients, are transforming themselves by leveraging sustainability. So is Wal-Mart.

The Center on Halsted (Chicago office project), located in Chicago, Illinois received LEED Silver certification. Steve Hall

Public infrastructure in the US takes in education at every level, from K-12 schools to universities. They have exactly the same challenges as government and the private sector: how to do much more with much less. What President Obama is calling for should be understood as repositioning on a national scale. The opportunity to emerge from this downturn stronger and healthier is huge. Academia has an important role to play in pointing to the areas of highest potential return, based on real research. It also needs to get its own house in order, considering how to leverage its real estate assets better. Education is an important land use—to important not to be used 24/7 and to be a socio-economic activator.

REI in Round Rock, Texas (San Francisco office project) is going for LEED Silver certification. Paul Brokering Photography

What are the greatest challenges confronting the progression of sustainable design?

In Europe, sustainability has moved beyond the environment to ask how it can improve people’s lives. We now have the same challenge. Some people are even saying, “Let’s put the environment on hold.” Our clients are not. They understand that this is a time to innovate—to take calculated risks today so that they can thrive tomorrow. As a country, we have the same opportunity. Sustainable design is part of the solution, not part of the problem. It demands that we make hard choices, but to do in expectation of a strong return on investment. Sustainable design asks us to “go long” on our own future, individually and collectively. The real challenge is to put aside our differences and get to work.