Art Gensler, founder of the Gensler (San Francisco) design firm, has passed away at age 85. Gensler was known for working on the first Apple store, Apple Insider reports. He passed away in his sleep Monday due to complications from a lung disease he had endured for the past 18 months.
Late Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Art Gensler reportedly met during a design conference, which led to Art designing the Apple headquarters shortly after. In the late 1990s, Gensler agreed to design the first 100 Apple store locations.
Art claimed that he had to work on the Apple store designs in a “locked, guarded warehouse” over the span of six months, each Thursday. Apple Insider says Art would design a store and Jobs would “rip the plans apart.”
After Gensler was contracted by Microsoft to design a handful of its brick-and-mortar locations, the firm was “fired” by Apple, but after Jobs’ death, the firm was re-hired.
Art Gensler studied at Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning, and founded the M. Arthur Gensler Jr. & Associates Inc. in 1965 with his late wife and business partner. He stepped down as the firm’s CEO in 2005 but was Chair until 2010.