May 12, 2021

Architect and entrepreneur Art Gensler has died

Gensler

Art Gensler, co-founder of the San Francisco-based global architecture design and planning firm now called Gensler, died May 10 from an ongoing illness at home in Mill Valley, California. He was 85.

In 1965, Art Gensler, his wife, Drue, and James Follett co-founded M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates, Inc. in a one-room office with just one draftsman and $200 in the bank. It focused on work that fell below the radar screen for many architects — space planning and interiors, the firm said in a statement. In the process, Gensler virtually created interior design as a new category of architectural practice, bringing it to a new level of professionalism.

Under his leadership, the firm was a pioneer in the practice of interior architecture, playing a significant role in developing client understanding of the value of the profession.

Early in his career, Gensler, an architect, recognized the need for a new architectural discipline that came to be known as tenant development. Beginning with the Alcoa Building in San Francisco, the firm developed the programming practices that it said have become the framework for interior architectural projects in the profession.

Gensler projects in Seattle have included citizenM South Lake Union Hotel, Pacific Place, the Da Li 222 Building and Tableau NorthEdge.

Art Gensler stepped down as CEO in 2005, and as chairman in 2010, but remained a presence in the firm and mentored the next generation of leaders.

Gensler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935 and completed his bachelor of architecture degree from Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning in 1958. Accomplishments throughout his career include being named a fellow of both the American Institute of Architects and the International Interior Design Association, and a professional member of the Royal Institute of British Architects. He received a Design Futures Council Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016. A charter member of Interior Design magazine's Hall of Fame and a recipient of IIDA's Star Award, he also received Ernst & Young LLP's Lifetime Achievement Award and the Cornell Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

In his later years he was a trustee of the Buck Institute for Aging, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the California College of the Arts. Recently Gensler, along with his family, gifted $10 million to Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning.

He is survived by his sons, David, Robert, Douglas and Kenneth, and their families. His wife of almost 60 years, Drucilla (Drue) Cortell Gensler, predeceased him.

Andy Cohen and Diane Hoskins are co-CEOs of the approximately 5,200-employee Gensler, which has 50 locations across Asia, Europe, Australia, the Middle East and the Americas.

Its 2020 total revenue was $1.55 billion.