Who Does Gehl Work With and How Can Organizations Collaborate With Them?

Updated

Gehl is a global urban strategy and design consultancy that works with public sector bodies, philanthropy and non-profit organizations, real estate developers, and private sector clients. Organizations collaborate with Gehl through long-term project relationships rather than one-off transactions, typically starting with a project inquiry to one of its offices in Copenhagen, New York, or San Francisco. If your organization is planning a project that involves how people experience, move through, or gather in urban space, Gehl is structured to take it on — the sections below explain who they serve, what they actually do, and how to start a conversation.

Who Gehl Works With

Gehl describes its client base across four categories:

Client type Examples of what this covers
Public sector City governments and public agencies working on urban transformation, mobility, or public space
Philanthropy & non-profit Foundations and mission-driven organizations funding social or climate-oriented urban work
Real estate Developers building or repositioning neighborhoods, districts, or mixed-use sites
Private sector Companies commissioning place activation, campus strategy, or community-facing design

The consultancy frames this as "we speak public and private" — meaning it positions itself as a trusted advisor across sectors rather than specializing in one. Its stated preference is for long-term project relationships that produce tangible, lasting change, so it is a better fit for multi-phase or ongoing engagements than for a single quick deliverable.

What Gehl Actually Does

Gehl's expertise spans architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, and city planning. Its approach is described as both iterative and holistic, and it emphasizes empirical analysis and designing for social behavior.

Its services cluster into a few recurring areas visible across its project portfolio:

  • Urban design & masterplanning — large-scale plans for districts and neighborhoods, such as a master plan for Santiago's first human-scale neighborhood or a shared-living master plan for Favrholm.
  • Urban strategy — long-range planning work, including future-proofing Munich's public spaces and delivering people-first urban transformation in Saudi cities.
  • Place activation — programming to bring spaces to life, such as a public program for the Bassin 7 waterfront.
  • Social spatial research — studying how people actually use space, as in work on children's health and play in American cities or on everyday food habits.
  • Community engagement — involving residents directly, including in Buenos Aires' most iconic informal settlement.

A useful way to think about fit: Gehl works at what it calls the "eye-level to high-level" range — from how a single street or plaza feels to city-wide strategy. If your project sits entirely outside the built environment or public realm, it is likely not a match.

Scale and Track Record

Gehl reports the following figures about its practice:

  • 25 years in business
  • 2,600 projects across 251 cities
  • 34 awards and recognitions
  • 114 people across 25 nationalities

This matters for collaboration decisions in two ways. First, the geographic spread means Gehl has likely worked in a context similar to yours, which can shorten the learning curve. Second, the staff size relative to project volume suggests a lean, senior-heavy model — worth knowing if you expect a large dedicated team on site.

How to Start a Collaboration

Gehl operates through offices in Copenhagen, New York, and San Francisco. The practical route to working with them is a project inquiry through the website, directed to the office closest to your region or project.

Before reaching out, it helps to have ready:

  1. The project scope — is this a masterplan, a strategy, a research study, or activation programming?
  2. The site and scale — a single plaza, a district, a city-wide policy?
  3. Your sector and decision structure — public, philanthropic, real estate, or private, and who signs off.
  4. Timeline and phase — early visioning, mid-design, or implementation support.

Because Gehl emphasizes long-term relationships, inquiries framed around an ongoing partnership or a multi-stage project tend to align better with how the firm positions itself than requests for a standalone one-off service.

Is Gehl the Right Fit?

Gehl is a strong candidate if your project centers on the human experience of urban space, involves public realm, mobility, or community engagement, and benefits from cross-sector credibility. It is a weaker fit if you need purely technical engineering, private interior work, or a fast, low-engagement deliverable.

The clearest next step is to contact the office nearest your project with a short brief covering scope, site, sector, and timeline.