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Architecture/Urban Planning/Infrastructure
International Airport. The $300 million project’s sustainable design will increase capacity and improve
security and circulation through a wing-like design centered around two landscaped gardens.
Terminal and garage roofs are designed to capture and store rainwater for airport use.
Winey says Gensler is also “short-listed” to design a 10 million-square foot mixed residential,
office, and commercial project, to be developed by DLF Ltd., and is in project discussions with
the Reliance Group and an India REIT managed by Warburg-Pincus. The firm is exploring several
new projects this year with top-tier clients, though Winey adds that “a week doesn’t go by
when we don’t get maybe ten requests for proposals in India.” Gensler takes a cautious approach
in evaluating the viability of project proposals, working primarily through introductions from
trusted partners, clients, and contacts. Among the lessons Winey says the firm has learned, in
part from its China experience: “If you don’t know the client, stay away. Even if you know the
client but they’re not one of the majors, stay away. And if you don’t know the person at the top,
you don’t know anyone.”
One important gain for Gensler growing out of its India relationships, he notes, has been the
discovery of design talent. A new majority-owned joint venture with about 15 people will open
soon in India as a Gensler office and is targeted to become a global design studio for the firm,
producing drawings, modeling, and computer animation. Winey expects 10–15% of Gensler’s total
business to shift overseas within a decade. As in China, he anticipates that the India joint venture
will increasingly become a distinct “local” entity in its staffing and pursuit of new business.
But there will always be advantages to remaining connected to the Gensler knowledge network
worldwide, he says, and a “follow the sun” model works well for projects in emerging markets
like India, where project cycle time—from start to approvals—is typically three months and
requires multiple architects with multiple specializations working around the clock.
Skidmore Owings & Merrill (SOM) partner Gene Schnair points to a satellite photo
of the project site for a planned community, Pioneer Park, in Gurgaon. Much of the
site is farmland that has to be acquired from individual small landholders in one-acre
plots that had been given to them by the government years ago, and, despite official government
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