Gerald D. Hines

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Gerald D. Hines is the founder and chairman of Hines, a privately held real estate firm with its U.S. headquarters located in Houston, and its European headquarters located in London.

Born in Gary, Indiana, Gerald Hines was uninterested in local options for employment, such selling shoes to workmen or working in a steel mill. He moved to Houston in 1948 as an engineer with a large corporation. He left to form an engineering partnership and started a fledgling real estate business on the side. Real estate soon became his real love, so he formed Gerald D. Hines Interests in 1957. Early Hines projects were warehouses and small office buildings. The break into the big league of commercial development came in 1967 when Hines convinced Shell Oil Company to let him build them a new downtown Houston headquarters. The Galleria, Pennzoil Place, Transco Tower (now Williams Tower) and more than 400 other major buildings followed. Today, Hines is one of the largest real estate firms in the world with operations throughout the U.S. and in 15 other countries.^{[citation needed]} Hines attributes his success to providing clients a quality product at a reasonable price backed by exceptional service.

Early on, Hines set out to build landmarks--structures that not only caught the eye and stirred the imagination, but also lured people inside. He grasped that excellent design can boost a project's bottom line and enhance a building's value to tenants and the community. In nearly any major city in the United States, some of the most prestigious office projects are likely to be Hines developments. Many of them were designed by well-known architects: I. M. Pei, Philip Johnson, Cesar Pelli, Frank Gehry and Robert A.M. Stern, to name a few.

Hines's deep appreciation of architecture and his keen eye for design have been handed down to his employees. Cutting-edge creations and aesthetics have always been the basis for his company's reputation. But the beauty of a Hines building is more than just skin deep. Hines is always willing to take the risk of innovation. He instinctively seeks that "point of difference" in a design -- that special something that makes a building stand out.

Today, the Hines portfolio of projects underway, completed, acquired and managed for third parties includes more than 1,000 properties representing approximately 416,000,000 square feet (38,600,000 m²) of office, residential, mixed-use, industrial, hotel, medical, retail and sports facilities, as well as large, master-planned communities and land developments.^{[citation needed]} With controlled assets valued at approximately $19.9 billion, Hines is one of the largest real estate organizations in the world.^{[citation needed]}