Gehl Annual Report 2017-18

18 Annual Report 2017—18

in 2018

gehlpeople.com Gehl — Copenhagen Vesterbrogade 24, 5th floor 1620 Copenhagen V Denmark Gehl — San Francisco 1211 Folsom Street, 4th Floor San Francisco CA 94103 USA Gehl — New York 395 Hudson St, 8th floor New York NY 10014 USA

Annual Report 2017—18

p4 On being 18 p6 Highlights p32 Financial year in review p36 Communication year in review p40 Into 2019

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Annual Report 2017—18

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Photo by: Sahar Coston-Hardy

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On being 18.

In 2018 Gehl turned 18 years old. As an organization, we are transitioning towards our third development phase - from a young and playful start-up embarking on the 21st century, through to a teenage explorative stage of development after a successful generation change in 2011. To now maturing as a networked organization, aspiring to bring the Gehl approach to scale and taking additional responsibilities for sustainable development of cities and communities globally.

Annual Report 2017—18

In the fall of 2017 we embarked on the second year of our business strategy called the ‘Gehl Effect’. The overarching goal is to have a greater impact and create an effect on people-centered planning and design. By growing Gehl impact, culture and brand we want to support a movement towards making the everyday life of all people thrive in more cities, towns, and communities.

We have continued to increase our ability to deliver change globally and locally towards ‘Making Cities for People’ through the delivery of projects related to public life, urban strategy & design. Together with Gehl Institute, Gehl the practice has delivered impact with policies, strategies, planning and design supported by analysis, research, data, capacity building and engagement.

I would also like to extend my thanks to our fellow founding partners of the Public Life Protocol – the City of Copenhagen, San Francisco, Seattle and Gehl Institute for enabling the advocacy and development of this new data standard of making people visible in planning.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone at Gehl. Thank you for your contributions this past financial year and for your collective achievements and increased impact.

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To further enable the implementation of these ambitions, we have made an organizational change in this past year, the introduction of a new crossorganizational innovation team lead by Partner Jeff Risom in a new Executive Management role as Chief Innovation Officer. Partner Blaine Merker stepped in as the Managing Director for Gehl in the US, further strengthening our leadership towards growing US business and the team.

I would like to thank all our clients and collaborators, extending a special thanks to Novo Nordisk – Cities Changing Diabetes for sponsoring our presence at the EAT conference in Stockholm, as well as the World Cities Summit in Singapore promoting health by planning. Thanks also to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for continuing to support ‘Inclusive Healthy Places’ as well as to Bernard van Leer Foundation for bringing groups of city leaders to Copenhagen to support better planning for newborns, young children and their caregivers.

Highlights.

Annual Report 2017—18

2018 has seen a whirlwind of exciting projects & initiatives, positive growth, organizational development and the drive of Gehl to be even more committed to ‘Making Cities for People’.

Over the course of a year, the 7

Gehl team works on hundreds of projects, travels around the world and collaborates with people who are just as passionate about making cities for people. Here are some highlights for 2018.

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2018 Highlights

Annual Report 2017—18

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Co-creating Gehl’s future Gehl Getaway — In October we gathered all Gehl teams in Copenhagen for our Getaway. During three action-packed days 80 Gehlers dove into the big urban challenges,

shared ideas, ideated and strategized towards a future Gehl strategy. Thank you to Camilla Frederiksen and the Stereo Associates team for leading us through the days!

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2018 Highlights

Guiding a ‘people first’ movement in China Magnolia Award & Shanghai Street Design Guidelines — Gehl has been working in China for over a decade, culminating in the recent ‘Shanghai Street Design Guidelines’, a conceptual guide for planners to reintroduce people first design thinking and planning in China’s most populated and heavily congested cities. We were

extremely proud to see Partner Kristian Villadsen recognized with the Magnolia Award due to the ongoing collaboration between the City of Shanghai, the Energy Foundation and Gehl. The Magnolia Award is one of China’s highest honors given to foreigners that have driven positive impact and relations to China.

Annual Report 2017—18

A Guide to Inclusion & Health in Public Space: Learning Globally to Transform Locally

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Promoting good health through inclusive places Inclusive Healthy Places — 2018 saw the continued development of the ‘Inclusive Healthy Places’ tool. In partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Gehl Institute developed the tool to help cities evaluate and design inclusive, health focused public

places that support health equity.

‘Inclusive Healthy Places’ gives cities a tool that can be used across scales for the first time to make sure health and inclusion are at the center of strategic planning.

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2018 Highlights

Annual Report 2017—18

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Bringing 'stickiness' to Bern Bern Parklets — Helping increase public life in a city that is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site is a special task. This past summer, we were asked to do just that, measuring the effects of a number of parklets along the central Zeughausgasse. The

city implemented the parklets inspired by our PSPL from 2017. The parklets provided ‘non commercial’ invitations to stay for locals and visitors alike, helping transform the area from a ‘pass through’ to a destination.

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2018 Highlights

The team — Alexander Spitzer, Jeff Risom and Sophia Schuff - missing in the photo is Archie Cantwell.

Investing in our future Gehl Innovation Team — At Gehl we believe that innovation thrives when integrated with real people, in real places, doing real things. We want to build upon our core focus on public life and built form to extend into broader city systems and human behavior.

This new Gehl Innovation Team works across the entire Gehl ecosystem of staff, partners and clients to forge new relationships, invest in new technologies, and revise tools and methods to address the most pressing issues of our time around well-being, equity and rapid urbanization.

Annual Report 2017—18

Gehl Platform

2.

Tool

Our Value Proposition

Finding the invisible stories between datasets PSPL Data Protocol — Gehl is working on making public life data and human behavior in public space more actionable and accessible.

We’re making both a platform to plan, schedule, scope, and visualize data in a meaningful way, as well as an

2.

App that will make data collection, data entry and surveying easier, more efficient and more accurate. Our goal is to connect disparate data points that allow us to make sense of complex urban systems and people behavior.

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Tool

Tell real wo about real p big data.

Tangible imp to peoples li

2018 Highlights

THE FOOD SYSTEM

Distribution

Processing

Consumption

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THE FOOD SYSTEM

Production

Post-Consumption

Exploring food options through digital tools Food systems in cities — With expert collaborators, the Gehl Innovation Team is exploring food systems.

Similarly to other shared urban systems like roads and parks, the food system is a complex shared asset with competing private and regulatory issues. With partners like TANT lab, we

are mixing digital anthropology with ethnography and urban design. We hope that by analyzing digital behavior with physical characteristics we will better understand how the most healthy and sustainable food, can also be the most accessible and visible.

Annual Report 2017—18

Driving engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals UNSDG’s — We’re well into the second half of the three-year programme ‘From Philanthropy to Business’ hosted by Dansk Industri (Danish Industries). There we have placed Gehl’s strategy and work within the UN Sustainable Development Goals

framework, allowing us to identify and prioritise the SDGs that we contribute towards. Cementing our commitment to the goals we designed the pavilion, showcasing SDGs and everyday actions at the P4G inaugural event on Rådhuspladsen in Copenhagen.

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Camilla van Deurs at the opening P4G event with the Danish Minister of Finance, Kristian Jensen.

2018 Highlights

Soft City 18

Building Density for Everyday Life

DENTIST

ARt Numeroo The ultimate guide: Dressing for your body type

124 pages of fashion +Get the model off duty style

RUM

12 healthy and easy recipies for the summer

MAD

summer special:

the most beautiful bathrooms in the world

This season: new colors and prints

Mahsolh

Mahsolh

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Happiness 4

David Sim

Foreword by Jan Gehl

Annual Report 2017—18

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Building density for everyday life Soft City Book — David Sim, along with Birgitte Bundesen Svarre and the book team have been busy producing ‘Soft City – Building Density for Everyday Life’ which will be launched in the spring of 2019. The book has a soft

approach to the big urgent challenges like urbanization, segregation and climate change. ‘Soft City’ introduces basic principles to create both dense and livable neighbourhoods, all aimed at increasing quality of life.

2018 Highlights

Testing elements towards Lille’s 2030 neighbourhood St Sauveur – Lille — We’ve been busy in Lille since winning the international masterplan competition in 2013. This summer, an activation of the site has taken place, with low tech, low cost interventions, including signage produced by local people, rolling hills

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2013

for biking and skating, a bare foot lawn, community BBQ area, a double decker bar bus, and an on-site project studio.

These elements are part of ongoing testing that will influence the areas permanent design in 2019.

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2017

Annual Report 2017—18

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2018

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2018 Highlights

Photo credit: CIty of Vancouver

Looking long term at Vancouver’s public realm Vancouver PSPL — Following a PSPL, summer and winter surveys, and workshops with city staff, the council and citizens feedback, Gehl has framed strategic recommendations for Vancouver’s Downtown public realm

over the next 30 years. Such long-term thinking is something we treasure and credit Vancouver for taking on as they continue to develop the city’s vision, expected in 2019.

Annual Report 2017—18

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Experiencing the city from 95cm Bernard van Leer Foundation —Gehl’s exciting partnership with philanthropic foundation Bernard van Leer continued this year, generating a host of activities focused on making small children and their caregivers visible in the urban environment. Collaboratively, we adapted the Gehl methodology to focus on this population specifically. Within

their ‘Urban95’ program, we hosted a Masterclass for global city leaders in Copenhagen to export best practices and tools to their home context, to ultimately frame the city from 95cm - the height of a three-year-old – and their caregivers.

2018 Highlights

Rethinking American Streets with Ford’s Greenfield Labs

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National Street Service —The National Street Service and website ourlivingstreets.com are joint platforms for tactical urbanism to demonstrate and drive engagement in breaking the embedded idea of

what and who streets are for. Ford’s Greenfield Labs, together with Gehl are working to elevate the street as a public space, a living space, and an element to help build communities.

Annual Report 2017—18

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2018 Highlights

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Planning with informality Barrio 31 — This year Gehl followed-up on the broader barrio wide strategy and design from 2017, together with several initiatives to integrate the barrio within the surrounding city. We developed 3 alternative flexible housing typologies that took design cues from the existing informal housing. We also did a concept design for a new pedestrian and cycling Illustrations by Fernando Neyra.

bridge that will shorten the commuting time from 55min to 15min to the city center for residents of the western, and most isolated portion of the barrio.

Finally, we trained the local team in methods to continually track public life and public space data to help nurture the existing social life and sense of community of the barrio.

2018 Highlights

Serie Espacios Públicos Urbanos

La Dimensión La Dimensión Humana Humana en el Espacio en el Espacio Público Público Serie Espacios Públicos Urbanos

Recomendaciones

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Recomendaciones para el Análisis para el Análisis y el Diseño y el Diseño

Developing a People-first guide MINVU — Working at the national level in collaboration with the Chilean Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU) we’ve developed a People-First guide to invest in and measure the impact of public space investments across the country.

This year we have been working with municipalities to translate these national guidelines to local conditions.

Gehl Gehl

Annual Report 2017—18

VISION STATEMENT

public LIFE IN SAN JOSÉ is a 1 catalyst for community cohesion and 2 benefits every neighborhood.

It 3 connects people to people, and people to places. It provides 4 tangible benefits to both city government and residents, and supports 5 sustainable living aligned with what people value most.

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3

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is a catalyst for community cohesion

benefits every neighborhood

connects people to people, and people to places

provides tangible benefits

supports sustainable living

Flexible and open, San José’s public life will reflect the city’s diversity, inviting those from all backgrounds to spend time together, and fostering an enriched sense of community cohesion.

San Jose’s vibrant public life is expressed distinctly in each neighborhood and district. It enriches all places on the urban-suburban continuum

Good urban design matters. San Jose’s public realm enables and dignifies the public life of the city, both at destinations and between them.

Every place is an opportunity to make public life thrive.

Public life reinforces San Jose’s strategic goals, generating a range of benefits to residents’ mental and physical health, economic development, safety, happiness, equity and opportunity.

Long term sustainability provides more of the things we truly value. Vibrant public life is mutually supportive of healthy people, authentic experiences, social connections and a healthy environment.

VIBRANT PUBLIC LIFE

PUBLIC LIFE FRAMEWORK

FIVE ACTIONS

Urban Planning

Long term sustainability provides more of thealH

Foster a Culture That Values Public Life Leverage Community Organizations and the Public Measure What You Care About

Design of the Public Realm Long term sustainability provides more of the things we truly value.

Programs + Activation Long term sustainability provides more of healHi, terat

Reframe Mobility As Experience In Public Space Create Great Public Destinations

Virtual Department of Public Life San Jose — The City of San Jose has put public life on the agenda at every level of government, from the Mayor to the Council and City Manager, and from top city staff to citizens. Public Life has been adopted as one of the seven “enterprise goals” of the City, overseen by the City Manager’s office. It has been integrated into

the daily operations of government overseeing public works, parks, culture, transportation and economic development. A coalition of more than 100 city staff has been trained to work across departments to prioritize public life in each of their portfolios with success criteria that no single department can achieve on its own.

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2018 Highlights

Photo by Luis Cantillo

Panamá Camina Panama City — As part of a larger effort to revitalize the center of Panama City, the Municipality has invested in reopening and improving the public realm around one of its main cultural hubs: The Museum of Anthropology.

This tactical intervention is helping visualize and draw public support for longer term public space and pedestrian

improvements in the heart of Panama City. Gehl was proud to provide the pilot’s design, technical review, and capacity workshops with municipal staff. Thanks to all the volunteers at the University of Panama City and partners Ciudad Emergente, Via Plural and sponsors InterAmerican Development Bank.

Annual Report 2017—18

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Gehl turns 18 Stepping into adulthood — On May 1st Gehl turned 18. This transition lead to a series of celebratory internal events where the team played on the fact that we have transitioned to adulthood. Hooray for everyone who has contributed to pushing Gehl from the teenage to adulthood phase!

Financial Year in review.

Annual Report 2017—18

Approximately 56% of our work is in markets close to us (US and Scandinavia). 40% of our work is in markets where we experience a growing demand for our services such as Northern and Eastern Europe, Canada and Latin America, as well as in Asia and in Australia.

Our work with public sector clients including municipalities accounts for 30% of our work, work with developers and private corporations accounts for 50% and finally our work with foundations and international organizations such as WHO, UN and the World Bank accounts for 15%, which shows how we are successfully applying our ‘People First’ approach across sectors towards our overall mission of making cities for people.

We will continue the steady growth of our US team in 2019 with an expected increase in Group revenue of 15-20%.

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Across the Gehl Group, we have grown our annual revenue by 2% in this past year. Our Group revenue has increased from 60.5 mill DKK to 61.8 mill DKK. The continued growth over the past 4 years has stabilized this year as we have reorganized and established a cross organizational innovation team and restructured the management team of Gehl in the US. Overall we have delivered a 10,4% profitability margin for the Gehl Group before interest and taxes.

Gehl Group

Revenue per market 2018/19

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Opportunistic 6%

Strategic 40%

Home Market 55%

Gehl Group

Revenue per client type 2018/19 Other 5%

Home Market 55%

Annual Report 2017—18

Gehl Group

Revenue per client type 2018/19 Other 5% Foundations & international organisations 15%

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Public Sector clients 30%

Developers & private corporations 50%

Communication Year in review.

Annual Report 2017—18

Overall, from GEHL Live to our four choice social media platforms we can see that our community continues to be happy! Our unique visitors to gehlpeople.com have grown from 144,000 to 165,000 and people are still excited by the content we provide, spending an average of 3 minutes on our site.

The focus has been on highlighting our people-first approach in the fields of masterplanning, urban strategy and mobility to our community. We have worked to target and increase the volume of our content in these fields via blog posts and case studies on our site. Content related to planning for informality and the re-thinking the streets as public spaces have gained wide interest from our followers. And we have seen an increase of followers from the US, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada and Brazil.

Thank you to our community for your comments, thoughts and ideas.

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In 2018 we have continued the roll-out of our social media strategy ‘The Gehl Social Effect’ together with our SoMe partner Untold. Throughout the year we have tested new web and SoMe initiatives, from themed campaigns to new graphic interfaces, all with the aim of making the Gehl content even more relevant to our online community.

2017/18

17,201

2016/17

11,700

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Increase of 5,501 Year on year increase of 47% Or 15 new followers a day

2017/18

13,852

2016/17

10,491

Increase of 3,361 Year on year increase of 32% Or 9 new followers a day

Annual Report 2017—18

2017/18

17,321

2016/17

12,087

Increase of 5,234 Year on year increase of 43% Or 14 new followers a day

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2017/18

28,100

2016/17

23,700

Increase of 4,400 Year on year increase of 19% Or 12 new followers a day

Into 2019

Annual Report 2017—18

18 and growing.

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Moving towards 2019 we are wrapping up our current business strategy called the ‘Gehl Effect’ which we have been working on for the past three years. In 2019 we will focus on continuing to stay close to our clients, showing the value we bring and reaching beyond the fields of traditional architecture and engineering.

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As we deliver Cities for People, we are adjusting our sustainability approach to align with the framework provided by the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The entire Gehl organization came together for three days in October to determine which of the goals align with our hearts and mind as well as our core expertise as an urban strategy and design team.

In 2019 we will work towards: — creating equal opportunity (SDG#10) — building urban resilience (SDG#13) — and enabling healthy neighborhoods (SDG#3) — as a way of delivering sustainable urbanization (SDG#11) — By addressing these urgent global challenges, we change the mindset of cities to put people first as a networked organization (SDG#17).

Moving towards 2030 we will creatively look for internal strategic partnerships and hyper-local collaborators to deliver on our ambitions for people to be at the center of planning and design. We will also be on the look-out for urban innovators in the field of data, evidence and tech that we can collaborate with.

We are looking forward to undertaking all these exciting initiatives in 2019.

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A big thank you to everyone at Gehl!

In 2018 Gehl donated to the Danish Cancer Society 'KrĂŚftens BekĂŚmpelse'