Book review: Art’s Principles by Arthur Gensler

Gensler is a global design firm that partners with clients to make cities more livable, work smarter and leisure more engaging. With more than 2,300 active clients, Gensler work across the global economy. Their clients are remarkably diverse, and the Gensler’s philosophy is help them grow, sustain and transform: whatever it takes to embrace their future. 3,800 professionals networked across 44 locations believe quality design can transform organizations and improve people’s lives.Since 1965, they have helped clients achieve measurable business and organizational goals, delivering projects as large as a city and as small as a task light for an individual desk. Gensler is organized to support clients at every stage of the design cycle, from initial strategy and design planning through implementation and management. During the last year, Gensler worked in 90 countries with 2,145 clients!

See also: BOOK REVIEW: PIERO LISSONI

Biography: the man before the myth

Arthur Gensler was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1935. He attended Cornell University, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in architecture. Upon graduation, he worked for architecture firms in New York and Jamaica. After moving with his wife Drue to California in the early 1960s, Gensler worked for a few architectural firms, including Wurster, Bernardi, and Emmons. While at Wurster, he played a lead role establishing the design standards for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, then under construction. In 1965, Gensler opened his firm by pioneering architectural interiors for newly constructed office buildings, including the Alcoa Building (1967) and the Bank of America Building (1969), both in San Francisco. His firm grew fairly rapidly with offices opening around the U.S. in the 1970s and 1980s and then overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. By the early 2000s, Gensler’s firm was the largest architecture and design company headquartered in the U.S. In 2015 the firm is expected to complete the Shanghai Tower, currently the second tallest building in the world.

Background and Realizations – Best Projects

Hear a lit more of Arthur Gensler inspiration behind his decision to establish his own architecture firm in 1965. A good topic discussed about the transform of architectural practice and technologies, the development of green building standards, and th globalization of professional services firms and so on.

“I’m pretty good observer of what goes on” He says.

Art’s Principles reveals the blueprint behind one of the most successful professional services firms, giving career-minded individuals the tools they need to excel in business. The book covers the essentials of leadership, talent acquisition and operations, while outlining the creative strategies that propelled a small business into one of the largest and most admired in its industry.

This guidebook is full of well-tested ideas that are applicable to someone running a small, medium or large professional firm — or running any project where people, profit and customers matter.