A half-day lecture event focusing on the unique role design and culture have played in the 40-year evolution of Gensler, the award-winning San Francisco-based architecture, planning and design firm, begins at noon, Feb. 9 at the Annenberg Presidential Conference Center on the Texas A&M University campus in College Station, Texas.

The presentation, “Gensler: The Power of Design,” is the 28th annual John Miles Rowlett Lecture, which each year features a distinguished firm from the design, planning and construction industries. The Rowlett Lecture Series is sponsored by the CRS Center for Leadership and Management in the Design and Construction Industry and the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.

“Our goal is to harness design's ability to empower people and transform organizations,” reads the Gensler Web site, which characterizes the company as an “entrepreneurial firm, flat and non-hierarchical, emphasizing teamwork, innovation, and the creation of real value.” The firm, founded in Houston in 1966 as a three-person interior design practice, today boasts more than 2,400 employees and offices in 30 cities, including London, Amsterdam, Tokyo and Shanghai, with 13 specialized practice areas and more than 2000 active clients.

Highlighting the 2007 Rowlett lecture will be a presentation by the firm’s founder and AIA Fellow, Art Gensler, who will trace the company’s history and transformation, which was achieved, he said, without compromising the unique Gensler culture. Other presentations and panel discussions will feature Gensler employees and clients addressing topics such as “the power of design,” “building great relationships,” and “charting a new course.

For two years running, Gensler was voted Contract Magazine's “Most Admired Firm.” In 2000, the firm earned the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Firm Award, AIA’s highest award to a collaborative design practice. In presenting the award, the AIA cited Gensler as a model for the design professions in the 21st century. Since 1998 the firm has garnered three Business Week Design Awards for work exemplifying how great design is informed by great strategy.

The $75 Rowlett Lecture Series registration fee will be waived for Texas A&M University faculty, staff and students. After Jan. 26, 2007 the registration fee increases to $90. Registration and program information are available from the CRS Center at (979) 847-9357 or online at http://rowlett.tamu.edu. Continuing education units will be available to AIA members attending the conference.

The John Miles Rowlett Lecture Series was endowed in 1979 through a grant to the Texas Architectural Foundation from the founders of CRS and Mrs. Virginia Rowlett. The goal of the lecture series was to attract speakers of national and international significance to the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University. The original firm of CRS was established in 1946 by William W. Caudill and John M. Rowlett, professors of architecture at Texas A&M University.