After outgrowing its space at Lincoln Center, Gensler has leased about 45,000 square feet of office space within the Meadows Building Complex at Energy Square. The architecture firm will move into the entire two-story Meadows Annex, along with connections to the adjacent Meadows Building tower through a ground-floor level breezeway and a second-floor balcony.
This lease comes as the more than 1-million-square-foot complex is getting a major $50 million renovation by owners GlenStar and USAA Real Estate. Gensler plans to start construction to build out its space in May and move in around September 1. CBRE’s Jeff Ellerman and Scott Hobbs, and Cushman & Wakefield’s Randy Copper represented Gensler. JLL’s Jeff Eckert leases the Meadows Building.
In February 2016, Dallas’ Landmark Commission designated the building on Greenville Avenue a historic landmark after some back and forth about whether owners GlenStar would tear down part of the building. Gensler, which was working on the building prior to deciding to locate its office there, and landscape architect Studio Outside are reinventing Energy Square into a pedestrian-oriented plaza with curbless streets and street-level restaurants.
“Architects are attracted to these historic buildings that are iconic in our city,” Co-Managing Director of Gensler Dallas Cindy Simpson says. “And we’re really focused on the wellbeing of our staff. To have a space where we could walk out into a lawn and work, and meet, and not just be in a building all day long, that’s important to us.”
Gensler looked at 29 different buildings in Dallas, Simpson says, including new and historic buildings in various submarkets. Gensler, which has been growing its Dallas office significantly since first coming to the region in 1997, had outgrown its 33,000 square feet in Lincoln Center. In listening to its employees, Gensler wanted to be adjacent to mass transit (the Meadows Building is reconnecting to the adjacent Milton/75 DART station in the renovation), connected to green space, and have plenty of natural daylight in its office.
On the first floor of its forthcoming office, Gensler plans to make a makers space with digital equipment and a model shop. “Many Gensler offices are capitalizing on these makers spaces. It will be visible when staff and visitors are walking through the office,” Co-Managing Director of Gensler Dallas Steven Upchurch says.
