Page 24 - RE-NJ #80 Nov.2023

22 WINTER 2023
Gensler’s New Jersey team served as architect for both the developer
and the tenant for Valley Bank’s new 120,000-square-foot headquarters on Speedwell Avenue in Morristown, which was developed by SJP Properties.
LEADING LOCALLY
Gensler marks 30 years in New Jersey with an expanded focus, but still at the forefront of workplace design
Gensler’s arrival in New Jersey in 1993 came with a clear opportunity for a firm whose
roots and expertise were in corporate interiors, in a state that had seen a wave of new office construction in the decade prior.
“We knew there was a market for this,” said Reid Brockmeier, who joined the global
design firm in
2001 but is well versed in its history. “There are millions and millions
of square feet
of office, and
we felt that we
can do something to differentiate ourselves in the market, which
Art Gensler set out to do to begin with when he (saw) that this is an underserved area of design.
“That’s also how we started in New Jersey. We felt it was really underserved in terms of how they were addressing the human experience, even at that time.”
Gensler spent the next decade or
so establishing itself in the market while growing its practice to include tenant work and core and shell design for ground-up projects, Brockmeier said. Its expansion
has been even more profound in recent years with its move into
asset classes such as health care, life sciences, sports and film and studio production, among others. It’s how the global design firm, 30 years after entering New Jersey, now finds
itself at the forefront of not only the fast-changing office market, with questions about aging inventory and how to bring employees back to the workplace, but several of the state’s key growth sectors.
“It’s always changing because we have to change with the market — and that’s constantly changing,” said Brockmeier, a managing director and principal with Gensler, who leads the Morristown office alongside Becky Button.
“I think we’ve pivoted more now in the last 10 years than we pivoted in the previous 20. And that’s a good thing. Clients are changing and
the entire firm has this attitude, it’s extremely entrepreneurial, and we are constantly, for lack of a better way to put it, reinventing
ourselves, because we have to. And it’s important — our clients are expecting us to do that.”
To be clear, Gensler’s industry- leading role in office design is
still on full display in New Jersey, where the firm has more than 100 employees. The team has guided a long list of high-profile commercial projects in the state, some of which are just steps from its office in downtown Morristown, including SJP Properties’ new two-building, 375,000-square-foot M Station complex that houses Deloitte LLP and will soon welcome Sanofi
U.S., along with Valley Bank’s new headquarters nearby. It also led the revamp of the iconic 2.3 million- square-foot Gateway office complex in Newark, working on behalf of
Reid Brockmeier
By Joshua Burd
Rendering courtesy: Gensler