Architect 2014-02.pdf

AIAfeature
39
architecture, planning, landscape architecture, and interior design
under one roof. Some have branched out into fabrication and
construction, while others have pursued product design, branding
services, or art installations.
The brand itself, then, has to do more heavy lifting by
communicating all of these multidisciplinary elements in a clear,
concise, and consistent manner. It’s a fraught process for a sole
practitioner, small firm, or even medium-sized firm. But what
happens when you have offices in 15 countries?
Gensler dropped “architects” from its name in the 1990s, after
moving away from M. Arthur Gensler & Associates in the 1980s. Now,
just shy of its 50th anniversary, the firm has grown from a small
office on Clay Street in San Francisco to 45 offices across 20 practice
areas. The more the firm grew, the greater the need to find a single
expression of its identity, so, just before the end of the last century,
it became simply Gensler.
“We were beginning to really focus on a much bigger and broader
offering that was not typical in an architecture firm,” says Gensler’s
co-CEO Diane Hoskins, FAIA. Gensler was already providing
multidisciplinary services as part of their portfolio, and the in-house
team developed the larger strategy. “We wanted to define ourselves as
being different from the rest and to really say to the world that we are
a new paradigm of a global design firm.”
The firm’s previous logo had been Helvetica in light green.
They went for a strong modern typeface in red to deliver the new
message in the redesigned logo. “It was a much bolder statement
and reflected greater confidence about design in a noticeable way,”
Hoskins says.
Gensler’s name and the new graphic presence helped broadcast
its identity externally, but its size and multiple locations required
internal cohesion as well. “Our brand is evident from every
touchpoint with our organization,” says Hoskins. “The innovative
spaces that we work in are an important and very tangible way of
demonstrating and experiencing the brand for our clients.”
With a focus on what Hoskins calls design thinking and thought
leadership, Gensler seeks to engage its clients and communities
in a larger discussion, in part by occupying ground-floor spaces
with a street presence in urban areas. Its offices also emphasize
collaboration in their layouts, and Gensler’s identity is
underscored through an internal communications strategy that
includes two magazines, Dialogue and Forecast Design, both of
which are substantial publications that detail current trends in
the various disciplines they represent.
All of this is essential to cultivating the firm’s culture. Not
every firm can reasonably carry two internal publications,
but Gensler is an exception. And any firm can take
advantage of social media to reinforce its brand, both
internally and externally.
“We encourage the principals and associates at Page
to tweet and write blog posts,” Speck says. This is also an approach
shared by Pentagram: “Social media is inexpensive and, when focused,
it is very efficient,” Stout says.
Gregg Pasquarelli, AIA, founding principal of SHoP Architects and
SHoP Construction, says that Instagram has proven to be an excellent
tool for the New York–based firm to share with the world and, in turn,
its own people.
“I can take a picture of a design detail, somewhere I am visiting, or
something that I am thinking about, and post it immediately,” says
Pasquarelli. “I love it.”
SHoP’s growth since its founding in 1996 has been welldocumented
in design media, beginning with construction services
and lately into a sustainable, integrated building technologies
company called HeliOptix. Less obvious is how SHoP managed that
growth and maintained an internal sense of coherence.
For Pasquarelli, the identity of the firm is largely about a culture
that principals strive to create within their team—which found
its earliest expression entirely by accident when the founders
inadvertently punched a hole between the “H” and “P” initials
of Holden (for founding principal Kimberly Holden, AIA) and
Pasquarelli while discussing the name of their new firm.
“We knew immediately that the ‘o’ would represent all of the
people who would work with us in the future,” says Pasquarelli. To
that end, while SHoP has grown to be 150 people between design
and construction, their brand identity keeps its internal identity
and outward appearance tied together.-Catherine Gavin aia
february 2014