Rives Taylor

Biography: Rives Taylor is an architect, educator, and global leader in sustainable design with more than 40 years of experience in institutional and commercial architecture. Based in Texas, he has spent 35 years advancing strategic planning, programming, and resilience on every scale—from building operations to campus and city planning. At Gensler, Taylor directs the Research Institute’s Resilience Center and previously led the firmwide Design Resilience Task Force. He has guided initiatives including Resilience by Design, the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3), and the Gensler Product Sustainability Standards (GPS), while also serving on the Board of the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute. He co-authors Gensler’s Climate Action Through Design insights and collaborated with MIT’s Mobility Lab on The Carbon Impact of a Workday. In 2015, he led Gensler’s delegation to the Paris Climate Conference. As an adjunct professor at the University of Houston for over 35 years and visiting professor at Rice University, Taylor has influenced more than 7,000 students through his high-performance design studios and seminars, shaping the next generation of architects committed to resilience and sustainability.