Self-reflection at Gensler in Denver

With 45 offices across the globe, Gensler, like many large-scale A&D firms, has an opportunity to explore and communicate a lot with their own workspaces. Just as people in different regions of the U.S. and around the world have unique qualities, each Gensler office and the people who work there often reflect those qualities as well.

The Gensler Denver office, newly designed by a team that ebbed and flowed between five and nine designers on the Denver team, became a study in self-reflection.

“As designers, it’s a challenge designing for ourselves because we know so much and have seen so much, said Michelle Liebling, principal and design director at Gensler in Denver. “We had a lot of different groups leading focus groups around culture, sustainability, innovation and other things.”

After a rigorous workplace strategy effort – looking into how the Gensler Denver team works, the types of spaces they use, and how certain spaces might affect their culture, the design team landed on three guiding principles for the design:

1. They wanted it to be inspiring…but not in the generic sense that’s difficult to avoid when using this word. “We wanted the space to showcase our work, but also celebrate our designers and their talents.”
2. They wanted the office to serve as a point of connection. We wanted to create a connection between team members, but also between us and the Denver community.

   

   We wanted to be able to share the space with that bigger community.” Spaces on the new office’s ground level are open to other groups, and Gensler coordinates and hosts events there as well. The design team also removed the heavy tinted glass on the exterior of the ground floor and replaced it with clear glass to bring back natural light to that level, as well as more transparency between people on the exterior and interior of the building.

3. They wanted the office to reflect who they are as a company and as an office. “Every Gensler office is very unique to its location. We wanted our new space to reflect who we are as people and as designers. We thought a lot about Denver and the history of Denver. Historical Denver revolves around the railroad. It wouldn’t be here today without that piece of their history.” The creative team Gensler Denver composed a design language grounded in steel and wood to reflect that history.

 

“We also thought a lot about the term ‘confluence.’ There’s a historical part of Denver called Confluence, where two points meet,” said Ms. Liebling. “We thought a lot about how we wanted the spaces to flow together and how people would come together and connect.”

Confluence Park is an urban park situated at the meeting point of Cherry Creek and the South Platte River in Denver’s Lower Downtown neighborhood of redeveloped 19th century warehouses and storefronts.

On the interior, the ground floor and second level occupy a horseshoe floor plate. The ground floor holds reception, a coffee bar, a formal conference room seating 10, and open collaboration and meeting areas.

The design expresses a new trend toward creating a reception that does much more than provide an entrance and waiting zone for guests.

“We wanted it to be more than just a reception. We built things like a specialty coffee bar and small gathering spaces for meeting into it so that we could give people a reason to go there – not only for us to invite and meet with guests, but also for our team to actually work and hang out in.”

The horseshoe centers around the open reception space, with a large meeting stair connecting to a mezzanine and the second level. The second level comprises an open office with assigned seating that can accommodate up to 132 people. Also on the second level are a design studio, kitchen, four free-address focus/huddle rooms, a quiet wellness room, and a library overlooking a tree grove in the plaza outside.

“The library is the space people gravitate toward; it’s always busy, and people want to go there when they’re not working at their desk,” said Ms. Liebling. It’s a calming space, and the booth element lets people work ‘alone together’. People who may not be working on the same project can cross paths more frequently.”

Altogether there are around 12-14 distinct types of work and meeting spaces people can use outside of their own workstation.

“You won’t see bean bags or ping pong tables because that’s just not who we are or how we work. We wanted to stay close to our identity.”

The new office is one of the first projects to implement LEED v4, and Ms. Liebling noted that the design team also implemented many concepts from the WELL Building Standard, including the guidelines for easy access to water, interior plantings, healthy snacks, and access to the exterior on both the first and second floors. Outdoors, a patio runs the length of the building, with tables, chairs, and a putting green.

The Gensler project notes describe the challenge of learning how to work with the new LEED v4 system:

“The Gensler office features sustainable LED lighting with motion sensors, low emitting materials, energy and water saving equipment and interior plantscaping…[the building’s certification] marks a major shift from the previous LEED rating system, increasing baseline efficiencies and redefining material selections through Health Product Declarations and Environmental Product Declarations. In order to meet the certification criteria, Gensler’s team of designers developed a detailed understanding of the new requirements to apply them to their new workspace. As a result, Gensler now has several LEED V4 projects underway for clients across the state.”