Publisher's Notebook: Last Night with Gensler in LA
They called it the "FiftySixty" party—a reference to two big birthdays and a golden anniversary.
Although Gensler co-CEO Andy Cohen is generally perceived as larger than life, that is only a cardboard cutout on a popsicle stick being held aloft last night at LA's California Club by San Diego uber-developer Dene Oliver and colleague Dan Nishikawa. 500 turned out to celebrate the joint 60th birthdays of Andy and…
…LA office head Rob Jernigan, where "head" here is the operative word, in this case behind held up by the real Andy Cohen. Getting confusing?
The customized drinks said it all.
The party also commemorated the 50th anniversary of Gensler. Someone who remembers it from nearly the beginning is Ed Friedrichs, second from left, with wife Margaret, bookended by Allen Matkins co-founder Fred Allen and wife Kathleen. Ed joined Art Gensler in 1969 and opened the LA office in 1976, which originally employed 22 when the whole firm was four offices and 100 employees. Today Gensler is the world's largest architecture firm with 5,500 employees, 550 of them in LA, and 41 offices in 19 countries, billing $1B last year. Even more impressive: Ed, who retired in 2003, rides his Suzuki b-strom motorcycle 10,000 miles a year, with Margaret holding on in back. They're in the process of moving to Reno, which given Tesla's $5B battery gigaplant plans, Ed reports is becoming one of commercial real estate's next big things.
