Lodge-Like Charm Meets Sustainability at This Airport Terminal

In winter, Gunnison, in central Colorado, is one of the coldest places in the U.S. For air travelers, its harsh weather means frequent flight delays—and long hours at the Gunnison-Crested Butte Regional Airport. Gensler Denver renovated and expanded the outdated facility to improve the passenger experience and increase energy efficiency. Now, the two-story, 48,000-square-foot structure is all electric and incorporates solar panels, geothermal systems, and upgraded insulation to achieve a net-zero energy load, which significantly reduces the county’s operating expenses. It’s also a very nice place to wait for a plane.

The team conceived lodgelike interiors that channel the two communities GUC serves: Gunnison, a working mountain town, and the quirky enclave of Crested Butte. “People should know where they’ve landed,” says Casey Johnson, Gensler associate and senior designer. Replica stag heads, cowhide rugs, and tufted-leather paneling bring a warm Western vibe, while the second-floor bar’s original ceiling of tongue-and-groove cedar has been painted bright colors, nodding to the building exteriors in downtown Crested Butte’s Elk Avenue district. Works by local artists appear throughout, including a detailed linoleum-stamp landscape print, overlaid on a map, by John Fellows that stretches the length of the security line. A feature wall, made of reclaimed Douglas fir, resembles a log cabin, and exterior columns have pops of orange like blazes on a hiking trail.

PROJECT TEAM
BRENT MATHER; JONAS PHILIPSEN; CASEY JOHNSON; BECCA FAULL; SARAH BUSCARELLO; REBEKAH WAGONER.

The Next Frontier Begins at Wichita State University’s New Hall

From the start, administrators at Wichita State University in Kansas envisioned Woolsey Hall, Barton School of Business, as more than an academic facility. It would be a threshold between the original campus and the innovation campus, where aerospace companies like Airbus have research facilities. “The request was to build a masterpiece,” laughs principal and comanaging director Brian Vitale, who’s at Gensler Chicago, which oversaw the 125,000-square-foot project, from strategy, branding, and experiential design to the architecture and interiors, the latter two developed in collaboration with GastingerWalker& in Kansas City, Missouri. Encompassing classrooms, event spaces, faculty offices, and a café, Woolsey had to be refined enough to host CEOs yet feel welcoming to a first-generation college student.

Drawing on shared workplace experience, the teams delivered a three-story building that resembles a corporate headquarters. Vitale and associate and senior interior designer Sara Catania conceived a flexible, efficient floor plan with many of the hallmarks of today’s offices, like huddle rooms and shared workstations. At its heart is a triple-height atrium anchored by all manner of seating—bleacher, lounge, one-on-one—formulated to promote connection, its undulating sides ensuring clear sightlines across the space.

Vertical oak rods form the atrium’s balustrades, a subtle reference to Kansas wheat fields, while blackened-steel handrails nod to the industrial precision of the local aviation industry—“The interplay between organic and manmade is both grounding and sophisticated,” Catania notes. Outside, a 300-foot-long pedestrian bridge leads to the innovation campus, symbolizing the transition from academia to the professional world.

GENSLER: BRIAN VITALE; MEGHAN WEBSTER; BRIAN WATSON; RYAN DEPERSIA; SARA CATANIA; KATIE SMITH; CARLI PAPP; LETICIA MURRAY; HEY J MIN. GASTINGERWALKER&: KEVIN HARDEN; ANDREA SHADRACH.

This Chinese Cultural Facility Connects City and Sea

Yantai, a city in eastern China, was a simple fishing village until not long ago. Now, it’s a major port and economic powerhouse. As part of a new tourism initiative, the local government asked Gensler Beijing to create the Yantai Huang-Bohai Sea New Area, a cultural facility that celebrates the region’s economic growth and spurs future development. “The client aimed to project a forward-looking vision, inspiring local pride and attracting visitors and investors,” senior associate and design manager Bob Xu recalls. The resulting 269,000-square-foot complex encompasses exhibition and event spaces, lecture halls, and a library, and serves the public as well as researchers and industry professionals.

The site is opposite the city center on a 70-acre island in the Huang-Bohai Sea, and the architecture reflects its location both practically and symbolically. In anticipation of storm surges and sea-level rise, Xu and his Gensler team ensured the structure was resilient and incorporated seawalls, robust landscaping, and rainwater-harvesting systems. The design draws on maritime themes throughout and highlights the connection between city and sea.

The architects found inspiration in a Chinese idiom about “100 boats vying for the lead,” a metaphor that captures the competitive nature of development in the area. “We translated this concept into four interlocking sculptural blocks, each representing boats racing forward,” Xu says. They rotate slightly to align with urban landmarks across the bay, creating a visual dialogue with the cityscape. Made of local granite, the structures have dramatic water-facing glazing that offer panoramic views and bring in natural light. When illuminated at night, Xu notes, the center resembles “a lighthouse for the new city.”

Inside, Gensler provided concept design for key public spaces; Suzhou His Design & Construction Co. led the rest of the interior design and execution. In the lobby, Gensler conceived a curved ceiling reminiscent of traditional boat construction and a skylit triple-height atrium that is the heart of the complex. The firms also partnered on the library, where floor-to-ceiling bookshelves frame water views and sun dapples auditorium seating. Elsewhere, immersive exhibitions tell the story of Yantai’s humble origins, industrial transformation, and its latest innovations. As a beacon of progress, the building itself reinforces this narrative.

GENSLER: AGUS RUSLI; JERRY HUNG; HONG TIAN; BOB XU; ANDY CHEN; YI ZHANG; DAVID ZHAI; LISA LIU; XUAN GUO; SIMON SONG. SUZHOU HIS DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION CO.: YANG ZHOU; ZE CHEN; RUI WANG.

FROM FRONT
MITSUBISHI: ESCALATOR (LOBBY). THROUGHOUT XIANGHUANGQI RISHENG MINING CO.: FACADE STONE. TG TIANJIN GLASS CO.: CURTAIN-WALL GLASS.

8 Cutting-Edge Product Launches Powered by Gensler

Innovative intros developed in collaboration with Gensler as product design consultant.

Uncover These Furniture Forward Collaborations With Gensler

Ambi by Stylex

Ambi modular work collection for in-person and virtual collaboration in open-plan spaces by Stylex.

---

Habana Powder-Coated Steel Cabana by iSiMAR

Habana powder-coated steel cabana with daybed and woven outdoor-fabric canopy that, turned on its side, acts as a space divider, by iSiMAR.

---

Gensler x Ben Soleimani Collection by Ben Soleimani

Gensler x Ben Soleimani Collection Large Grid rug of 85 percent New Zealand wool blended with 15 percent nylon, in Ivory, by Ben Soleimani.

---

Polygood by The Good Plastic Company

Growth collection of Polygood surfacing composed of recycled plastic waste including from discarded refrigerators, washing machine enclosures, and consumer electronics, in Frost, Pumice, Oyster, Pebble, Midnight, and Gossamer, by The Good Plastic Company.

---

Luminaire by Lucifer Lighting

Stellaris surface- and stem-mounted luminaire by Lucifer Lighting.

---

Solaris by IOC Project Partners

Solari benching system with sound-absorbing partition panels and hidden wiring system by IOC Project Partners.

---

Canopy Workstations by KFI Studios

Canopy workstations with privacy hoods by KFI Studios.

---

OH by pba

OH door lever in stainless steel and white oak by pba.

This All-Electric Workplace Building Celebrates the Beauty of the City

On a burgeoning corner in downtown San Jose, California, a 19-story office building with a sprawling average floor plate of 54,000 square feet could kill the city vibe. But Gensler San Francisco had a solution. Six of what senior associate and technical director Christopher Payne calls “solar canyons” are carved vertically into the structure, breaking up the mass of 200 Park and making the high-rise more respectful of its urban context. “They also provide scaled neighborhoods between them and give access to terraces that allow a tenant’s business unit to have its own character.” The double-height terraces, or “sky bridges,” offer each leasable floor three outdoor spaces with views over downtown and the valley and bring natural light into the core.

Inside, Gensler’s hospitality-inspired environments offer a warm counterbalance to its facade of embossed stainless steel. Ash-veneer paneling in the elevator lobby morphs into textural ceiling slats, while indirect lighting grazes a chiseled limestone feature wall. “As you go up, the finishes become more saturated and punchier,” Payne says. Rift-cut white oak envelops much of the fifth-floor fitness studio; colorful, curvy furnishings—turquoise Nanimarquina ottomans, an expansive Lemmy sectional from Jardan, Anthony Dickens’s Tekiò circular pendant fixture—add whimsy in the neighboring social club.

That’s not all. Totaling 1.4 million square feet, the LEED Gold–certified, all-electric building is the first project in California to use SpeedCore construction, where prefabricated steel-plate panels do double duty as concrete formwork and structural members. The system shaved off three months in construction and reduced wall thicknesses by 20 percent, adding valuable square footage inside.

BENEDICT TRANEL; BERT DEVITERBO; NAOMI MOTOMURA; BOB PERRY; MELISSA O’REAR; CHRISTOPHER PAYNE; STEPHEN KATZ; SHUANG XU; ANNA PERICAS; MARWA ISTANBULI.

Bringing L.A. Flair to a Finance Company’s Corporate HQ

Gensler has a history with this global investment manager. Almost two decades worth. That’s when the studio first created the finance company’s corporate headquarters in Los Angeles. Its recent move down the street to a 1964 concrete structure entails 206,000 square feet across eight floors for 860 people, its concept, by Gensler L.A., led by principal and design director Lee Pasteris, centered on connectivity and transparency.

Pasteris began with cues from the base building, exposing intrinsic elements and selecting refined materials as complements. Next, she and her team cut immense holes through floor plates to accommodate two stacked stairways, one connecting levels three through six, the other 10 to 14. Each stair landing adjoins a unique lounge reflecting an L.A. archetype: The art gallery, for example, has pedestals displaying vessels by California artist Nick Schwartz; Alex Fernández Camps’s cloudlike Mediterrània pendant fixtures hang over a beachy white outdoor Scacco sofa by Ludovica Serafini + Roberto Palomba in coastal; and the terrace has cabanalike booths and a focal wall in the client’s corporate cobalt.

Ascent and descent are quite a trip. Backdropped by a towering expanse of preserved moss by Garden on the Wall, the lower stairway skews earthy, while the upper boasts commissioned Windy Chien pieces, four of the office’s 70 artworks. The workplace proper comprises a 70/30 open-closed ratio. Offices have glass fronts and, compared from previous quarters, are all uniformly sized. “We’re moving toward a future-focused design driving solutions,” Pasteris cites the overarching goal. “With every company, we’re searching for the secret sauce.”

DENISE ZACKY-POPOCH; KARIN NELSON; LEE PASTERIS; JULIA PARK; COLIN THOMPSON; CINYA WEN; GRETCHEN BUSTILLOS.

Peek Inside the Revamped IBM Manhattan HQ Fostering Innovation

On the heels of Gensler completing IBM’s Toronto office, the tech company tapped Gensler New York for the interiors of its Manhattan headquarters. This project—270,000 square feet across five floors, large enough to bring together 10 teams, formerly in separate offices around the city, under one roof—showcases IBM’s ethos and goals plus myriad instances of cobalt, the corporate color. “It serves as a model for uniting business units to foster teamwork, innovation, and a future-focused culture,” Gensler senior associate and studio director John Budesa says.

Those teams and visitors alike are greeted by the 40-foot-long Quantum Wave, a linear ceiling fixture by IBM Blue Studio, a physical representation of the company’s technological prowess. Similarly hued, a terrazzo staircase links the ground-floor lobby with the second floor, where the Blue Bar offers coffee by day, cocktails after hours, and the client-centric innovation studio contains a range of work lounges. Floor 10 is devoted entirely to amenities: a full-service kitchen, café, 300-seat auditorium, and 25,000-square-foot, Internet-enabled terrace—New York’s largest—that contains power outlets and 40 species of live plants.

Throughout, furnishings buck the recent trend of being overly soft and loungelike; rather, all are conceived to be both comfortable and efficient, from custom banquettes upholstered in Suzanne Tick fabric to Tom Dixon chairs. “Seating elements are functional no matter where they are in the building,” Budesa notes. Lighting is likewise practical and ambient: Antoni Arola’s Palma globes over tables, for instance, provide focused yet more diffuse illumination than typical overhead lighting. For some contrast in materials, wood and stone elements skew organic, while reflective surfaces and polished metals lean more futuristic.

There are now more than 2,000 employees working at this IBM. To accommodate various modalities, areas are divided into zones for focused tasks or collaboration, plus flex spaces that allow for relaxation and conversation. High-top tables, phone pods, and booths, grouped in neighborhoods of 20 to 30 inhabitants, enable a more individualized “design your day” approach, ensuring the flagship not only meets the needs of current employees but also anticipates those of future talent.

AMANDA CARROLL; JOHN BUDESA; JOHN MULLING; MATT TRIEBNER; SUZY HENRY; MATT MCKEE; JENNY PEI CHANG; ANDREW DAVIS; NICOLE VILCHEZ; ALEX DIAZ.

FROM FRONT
LUUM TEXTILES: BANQUETTE FABRIC (RECEPTION). TOM DIXON: CHAIRS. STEELCASE: CHAIRS (FLEX SPACE), LONG TABLE (LOUNGE). VICCARBE: LONG TABLE (FLEX SPACE). COALESSE: CAFÉ TABLES. RBW: PENDANT FIXTURES. HALCON: TABLE (COLLABORATION), BENCHES (LOBBY). BOLIA: CHAIRS (COLLABORATION). INTERFACE: CARPET TILE. AURA CUSTOM LIGHTING: CEILING FIXTURE. WEST ELM: CHAIRS (LOUNGE). BLU DOT: ROUND TABLES. VIBIA: PENDANT FIXTURES. BENTLEY MILLS: CUSTOM RUG. EVENTSCAPE: CUSTOM LIGHT FIXTURE (LOBBY). LINDNER: ACOUSTIC CEILING. THROUGHOUT SYNERGI: CUSTOM STAIR. PLATINUM: TERRAZZO FLOORING, TREADS, RISERS. MILLER BLAKER: MILLWORK.

A Sanctuary for Mindful Healing Through Psychedelic Therapies

Gensler was in uncharted territory when it conceived the Bill Richards Center for Healing in Rockville, Maryland: It was one of the country’s first purpose-built spaces for psychedelic ther­apies, where cancer patients with depression and others who qualify for clinical trials would come for psilocybin-assisted therapy. “We were defining a new prototype for care,” senior associate, co-global healthcare leader, and design director Bonny Slater says. The setting would be a crucial part of treatment.

Slater and her team at Gensler Washington began the 2,500-square-foot project with a visioning session that brought together physicians, patients, scientists, artists, and experience designers. “We had to understand the careful choreography of the therapies and how spaces can impact the outcomes—in other words, how to avoid a bad trip,” Slater says. The resulting environment is tranquil, comfortable, and safe, avoiding visual triggers or overstimulation, with slate-look resilient flooring and vertical white-oak slats curving along walls.

At the entrance, a warm common area with lounge furniture helps patients relax before sessions; it can also host yoga classes or group workshops. Neutral, residential-style therapy rooms feel welcoming and familiar, with blackout drapes for light sensitivity. Cove lighting emits a soft glow throughout, with one exception: At the end of the therapy corridor, a large circular fixture reminds patients to focus their intentions before the trip.

TAMA DUFFY DAY; BONNY SLATER; ALEJANDRA DELGADO; KARLA SEPULVEDA; VAL DOBREV; PATRICK FOLEY.

Experience Healing Nature in This Canadian Health Center

On the third floor of Telus Sky, a 60-story, mixed-use tower in Calgary, Canada, Gensler Seattle has transformed 16,000 square feet into the Telus Health Care Centre, which separates itself from the typically sterile medical environment by integrating hospitality notes with clinical efficiency. “Our client sought to get outside the standard, to create something inspiring and bold,” senior associate and studio director Tessa Levine-Sauerhoff recalls.

To wit, upon arrival to the two-story site, visitors are welcomed by a wall of oak-veneered slats housing a luminous screen that displays gentle rhythms of digital biophilia. Nearby, the visualization hub, where four additional screens explain medical procedures and provide personalized health data, features a constellation of colorful Bocci pendant globes, Alfredo Häberli’s Dado modular seating upholstered in coordinating hues, and oak floor planks. Patient pods and MRI and ultrasound/DEXA rooms employ “smart ambiance”: The lighting, temperature, music, and scent can be personalized to patient preference to help comfort. Projections on curved walls or screens arcing down from the ceiling immerse them in such soothing settings as underwater seascapes, forests, and the Northern Lights. Throughout, woven-vinyl flooring and carpet tile maintain warmth while ensuring cleanability.

TESSA LEVINE-SAUERHOFF; MARIANNE STARKE; KRYSTIAN GARDULA; STEVE WOODS; DAICHI YAMAGUCHI; MICHAEL SCHUR.

A Metallic Monochrome Forest Awaits in a Columbus Children’s Hospital

Can data centers generate community? Yes, say Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Gensler Chicago. The latter oversaw the architecture and interiors of the Columbus, Ohio, facility’s ground-up, 87,000-square-foot building, which brings together data and conference centers, offices, coworking spaces, and medical simulation labs in an inviting five-story hub focused on engagement and education.

“From the beginning, our client was intentional about the place they were creating,” Gensler principal, co-global healthcare leader, and design director Randy Guillot recalls. With “hospital in a park” as the guiding theme, visitors pass through a landscaped plaza encountering a custom fritted glass facade. Once inside, the lobby is like a breath of fresh air, with a 26-foot, wood-slat ceiling, crisp terrazzo flooring, Anders Klem’s Scandi-style A Conversation Piece lounge chairs, and tall mobile panels that, courtesy of Flavor Paper wallcovering, display what appears to be a metallic, monochromatic forest. When opened, the panels reveal an auditorium under a custom dropped ceiling that’s akin to sitting beneath a tree canopy. “People understand immediately that they are welcome,” Guillot adds. Nearby, a cantilevered stair leads up to the mezzanine and second floor, where the offices and coworking spaces are. The data center is tucked away on the building’s top two floors; below grade, the state-of-the-art simulation center connects to the hospital’s tunnel network. 

RANDY GUILLOT; JACKSON METCALF; KAITLIN BECKHAM; PRINCE AMBOOKEN; JILL MAHANEY; CLAYTON WITT.