Rives Taylor

Biography: Biography Rives Taylor has more than 35 years’ experience in institutional and commercial architecture with 30 years spent focusing on strategic planning, programming, and sustainable design, scaled from facility operations to campus and city planning. A Texas-practicing architect/educator, Rives directs Gensler’s Firmwide Design Resilience Task Force and leads the Gensler Research Institute Resilience Center. He casts a wide net in elevating both the why and how of sustainable design, including students, faculty, professionals, public officials, and the general public. In over 30 years as an adjunct professor at the University of Houston and visiting professor at Rice University, Rives has influenced more than 6,000 students in his technical and high-performance design studios and seminars. The approaches Rives developed for Gensler not only affect the firm’s extensive practice but also influence clients’ building decisions worldwide. He developed a firm-wide green practice primer called “The Four Tiers of Sustainability,” led the inclusion of sustainable design in the firm’s in-house education program, and in partnership with Architecture 2030 and the Design Futures Council, developed an “eco-charrette” process and developed a building performance metric that is now used in all of Gensler’s projects. He is part of the editorial team that produces the annual “Climate Action Through Design” (https://www.gensler.com/sustainability/climate-action-through-design-2021) Rives has been a general member and occasional board member of the ULI Sustainable Development product council for over 8 years. Locally he has been the inaugural director of the Houston ULI Chapter Building Healthy Places Council. He has engaged in two Professional Advisory Panels for Broward County [ https://seflorida.uli.org/uli-resources/bbt-center-broward-county-florida-advisory-services-panel-report/ ] and for the Duwamish River (Seattle) resilience focus [ https://americas.uli.org/advisory-service-panels/advisory-services-panel-seattle-washington/ ] . In 2015 Rives led Gensler’s delegation to the Paris Climate Conference/Agreement and led the editorial team for the “Impact by Design” ( https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/sustainability ) publications annually (recent publication: https://www.gensler.com/research-insight/sustainability/2018 ). He is also part of the leadership team rolling out the Gensler Cities Climate Challenge (GC3) Rives developed design and construction standards for clients such as ExxonMobil, Walmart, ThyssenKrupp, and Toyota are now embedded in those clients’ protocols and are followed worldwide. 2004 to current: Gensler (Houston): Principal, Firmwide Director of Design Performance; 1993 – 2004: University of Texas Health Science Center - Houston, University Architect and Manager of Architecture Leadership Team, Facility Operations, Engineering and Architecture Registered Architect, Texas (1986) Colleges Attended Master of Science in Architectural Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1988) Bachelor of Architecture, Rice University (1984) Bachelor of Arts, Rice University (1982) Civic activities Mayor’s (Houston) Water Strategy Task Force (2013) Mayor’s (Houston) Resilient Planning Task Force (2014) Chair, AIA National Education Committee, 2011 to 2012 Gensler Representation of AIA Large Firm Roundtable, Green Group Board Member, Gulf Coast U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) 2013 to present Additional achievements, honors or certifications ULI Apgar Urban Land Award, 2014 Center for Houston’s Futures Impact Award Finalist, 2013 Fellow of the American Institute of Architects (2008) Houston Citizen’s Environmental Coalition President’s Award 2003