Andy Cohen, Diane Hoskins, Elizabeth Brink and Jordan Goldstein

Over the last year, the 33 practices across Gensler, a global powerhouse in architecture and design, has completed 3,049 projects around the world, with 2,000 of those projects in the U.S. alone.

“Last year was an incredible year of growth for the firm, and growth in some really exciting practices that we have pivoted into over the past few years,” said Elizabeth Brink, who shares CEO duties with Jordan Goldstein. “We’re seeing a lot of growth in our health care practice, a lot of growth in our sports and entertainment practices, and a lot of growth in our critical facilities practices.”

The firm also saw a lot of momentum within its workplace practice, with two projects in particular standing out: J.P. Morgan Chase’s new global headquarters at 270 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, and Walmart’s home office campus in Bentonville, Ark.

“The new Walmart headquarters, it’s almost hard to even imagine,” said Diane Hoskins, who serves as global co-chair alongside Andy Cohen. Built from mass timber, the offices and amenity spaces span 2.4 million square feet on a campus of more than 300 acres, “and 20,000 people are working there,” Hoskins said.

Today’s office environment is vastly different than it was in the days before the COVID-19 pandemic, as the workplace of today needs to be more of a destination where people want to be than merely a place to do your job. That shift in workplace mentality is exactly the idea Gensler took into the J.P. Morgan project.

“That’s a project we’re so proud of,” Goldstein said. “We’ve been working on it for a long time.”

It took six years and $4 billion to finish 270 Park Avenue. Gensler designed 1.7 million square feet of the building’s interior spaces, including 20 floors of office space, six conference floors and a fitness center, as well as a health and wellness suite. 

Gensler’s success over the last year wasn’t limited to office design, New York City or even the U.S. — but we don’t have the print space to list them all.

“We’ve had the best year in the history of our firm because of the leadership in this room,” said Cohen. “It was the most prolific year in the history of our firm, which is amazing, and it’s really based on all the design innovation we’re providing to our clients.”