Top 250 Firms: Titans Maintain Lead While Industry Suffers

By Jenna M. McKnight

Photo © Nanjing Chunshan

One of Perkins+Will's recent foreign projects is the Chervon International Trading Company Headquarters in Nanjing, China.

They’ve done it again. For the fourth straight year, heavyweights AECOM and Gensler have landed at the number one and two spots, respectively, on our annual Top 250 Architecture Firms list, which ranks companies according to architectural revenue in the prior year.

In 2010, AECOM garnered $666.4 million in architectural revenue, and Gensler, with $656.9 million, wasn’t far behind. Perkins+Will, at $400.3 million, came in third—its highest position yet. P+W has steadily ascended our list over the last few years, placing sixth in 2008 and 2009 and fourth last year.

While Gensler’s 2010 architectural revenue rose $107 million over 2009, most firms saw their incomes shrink. Overall, the top 250 firms earned $9.4 billion in architectural revenue in 2010, down from $10.2 billion in 2009, and nearly a quarter less than two years before.

Our ranking is based on surveys that McGraw-Hill Construction distributed this year, from January to March, to thousands of architecture and engineering firms countrywide. Foreign companies with American offices were eligible to participate, but they could only report revenue generated by their U.S. outposts. Readers may note the absence of high-profile firms such as Foster & Partners and Gehry Partners. Our team contacted these firms but received no response.

In addition to total architecture revenue, we showcase additional data we collected about each firm, such as domestic-versus-overseas revenue and percentage of total income generated from architecture. These supplementary details can be revealing: URS Corp., for instance, derived only 6 percent of its total 2010 revenue from architecture, yet it still ranked number six on our list.

As our findings attest, the profession remains in the economic doldrums. Since climbing to $12.5 billion in 2008, architectural revenue among the top 250 firms has continued its downward slide. The recession officially ended in June 2009, but designers haven’t felt much relief. “Any anticipated recovery has not materialized,” says Gary Tulacz, manager of surveys for McGraw-Hill Construction.

While a few sectors, such as health care and higher education, are somewhat active, forecasters don’t expect the architectural market to bounce back this year. After rising into positive territory in early 2011, the Architectural Billings Index has sunk below 50 for the past two months, signaling depressed conditions. Moreover, Engineering News-Record’s Construction Industry Confidence Index—based on surveys sent to contractors, subcontractors, engineers, and architects—dropped five points in the second quarter of 2011, from 51 to 46. 

For some, foreign projects are helping make up for the loss of work at home. Of the top 250 firms, 117 reported activity overseas, with international revenue totaling $1.8 billion. That said, $557.8 million of the full sum—nearly a third—was earned by AECOM, Gensler, and HOK.

Acquisitions and mergers also figure into the list. Most notably, Stantec’s ranking skyrocketed from 51 to 24, due in part to its purchase of Pennsylvania’s Burt Hill. Most likely, the publicly traded, Canada-based firm will land even higher next year, given its acquisition of California’s Anshen+Allen in late 2010. While Anshen+Allen was listed separately on our 2011 list (its rank: 105), its revenue will be folded into Stantec’s total next year. CEO Robert Gomes adds that Stantec isn’t done growing. “It will be interesting to see how we continue to move up the list,” he says. “Our goal is to be one of the top 10 firms.”

 

HOW TO USE THIS TABLE Companies are ranked by revenue (in $ million) for architectural services performed in 2010. This data also appears in the Top 500 Design Firms list produced by our sister publication, Engineering News-Record; unlike our ranking, that list includes engineering-exclusive firms. Data is collected by McGraw-Hill Construction’s Research and Analytics group. To participate in next year’s survey, contact Gary Tulacz at gary_tulacz@mcgraw-hill.com. Key to how firms classify themselves: A = Architect AE = Architect-Engineer AP = Architect Planner EAL = Engineer Architect Landscape AEC = Architect-Engineer-Contractor (not all combinations listed)

 

Top 250: 1-50 | 51-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | 201- 250

 

ARCHITECTURE FIRMS RANKED ACCORDING TO 2010 REVENUE

2011 Rank	2010 Rank	Company	U.S. Headquarters	Type of Firm	Total Architectural Revenue	Domestic Architectural Revenue	International Architectural Revenue	Percent of Design Revenue from Architecture	Total Design Revenue
1	1	AECOM Technologies	Los Angeles	EA	$666.40	$399.80	$266.60	11%	$5,919.80
2	2	Gensler	San Francisco	A	$656.86	$491.09	$165.77	100%	$656.86
3	4	Perkins+Will	Chicago	A	$400.30	$304.70	$95.60	100%	$400.30
4	5	HDR Architecture Inc.	Omaha	AE	$336.90	$290.60	$46.30	22%	$1,500.30
5	6	HOK	St. Louis	AE	$334.16	$208.71	$125.45	72%	$462.26
6	3	URS Corp.	San Francisco	EAC	$282.80	$232.20	$50.60	6%	$5,038.80
7	9	NBBJ	Seattle	A	$193.80	$166.24	$27.56	100%	$193.80
8	7	HKS Inc.	Dallas	AE	$190.50	$169.50	$21.00	100%	$190.50
9	12	RTKL	Baltimore	EA	$176.00	$93.00	$83.00	13%	$1,362.00
10	8	Skidmore Owings & Merrill LLP	New York	AE	$169.90	$89.00	$80.90	68%	$251.00
11	10	Leo A Daly	Omaha	AE	$157.89	$147.67	$10.22	100%	$157.89
12	11	Cannon Design	Grand Island, N.Y.	AE	$155.80	$127.13	$28.67	81%	$192.70
13	16	Bechtel	San Francisco	EC	$134.00	$59.00	$75.00	6%	$2,170.00
14	17	ZGF Architects LLP	Portland, Ore.	A	$124.60	$117.62	$6.98	100%	$124.60
15	18	Perkins Eastman	New York	A	$110.00	$82.50	$27.50	100%	$110.00
16	15	SmithGroup Inc.	Detroit	AE	$105.00	$102.70	$2.30	58%	$179.70
17	22	Rafael Vinoly Architects PC	New York	AE	$104.72	$54.57	$50.15	100%	$104.72
18	13	Populous	Kansas City, Mo.	A	$99.00	$52.00	$47.00	100%	$99.00
19	14	Callison	Seattle	A	$92.50	$42.00	$50.50	100%	$92.50
20	20	Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates PC	New York	A	$89.80	$13.40	$76.40	74%	$121.20
21	23	HMC Architects	Ontario, Calif.	A	$88.04	$87.82	$0.22	100%	$88.04
22	31	DLR Group	Omaha	AE	$87.00	$87.00	$  -	75%	$116.00
23	27	HNTB Cos.	Kansas City, Mo.	EA	$76.22	$68.29	$7.93	8%	$1,000.01
24	51	Stantec Inc.	Irvine, Calif.	EAL	$75.75	$75.75	$  -	13%	$578.00
25	25	Corgan Associates Inc.	Dallas	A	$73.80	$65.80	$8.00	93%	$79.42
26	19	Fentress Architects	Denver	A	$70.70	$69.79	$0.91	100%	$70.70
27	30	STV Group Inc.	New York	EA	$68.86	$68.86	$  -	20%	$350.32
28	41	Hammel Green and Abrahamson Inc. (HGA)	Minneapolis	AE	$65.68	$65.68	$  -	54%	$121.63
29	29	PageSoutherlandPage	Houston	AE	$63.35	$40.66	$22.69	77%	$81.97
30	85	Belt Collins	Honolulu	L	$57.50	$11.07	$46.43	100%	$57.50
31	42	KlingStubbins	Philadelphia	AEP	$56.90	$45.00	$11.90	58%	$98.00
32	28	PBK Architects	Houston	A	$56.20	$56.20	$  -	100%	$56.20
33	-	Ingenium International Inc.	Detroit	AE	$54.00	$1.30	$52.70	66%	$82.40
34	56	Burns & McDonnell	Kansas City, Mo.	EAC	$49.10	$21.70	$27.40	7%	$684.51
35	40	Flad Architects	Madison, Wis.	AE	$48.40	$47.97	$0.43	83%	$58.30
36	26	Gresham, Smith and Partners	Nashville	AE	$47.52	$46.58	$0.94	55%	$86.59
37	32	SHW Group	Plano, Tex.	AE	$46.02	$45.91	$0.11	82%	$56.34
38	38	VOA Associates Inc.	Chicago	A	$45.66	$40.77	$4.89	100%	$45.66
39	44	MulvannyG2 Architecture	Bellevue, Wa.	A	$45.55	$35.00	$10.55	100%	$45.55
40	52	Dewberry	Fairfax, Va.	EA	$44.54	$44.54	$  -	15%	$295.24
41	45	LPA Inc.	Irvine, Calif.	A	$43.40	$43.40	$  -	100%	$43.40
42	53	Michael Baker Corp..	Moon Township, Pa.	EA	$42.70	$42.60	$0.10	10%	$444.00
43	78	Davis Brody Bond Aedas	New York	A	$42.41	$42.02	$0.39	100%	$42.41
44	50	Heery International Inc.	Atlanta		$42.21	$42.21	$  -	84%	$50.25
45	90	WATG	Irvine, Calif.	A	$41.55	$1.76	$39.79	76%	$54.87
46	49	Ennead Architects LLP	New York	A	$41.25	$41.25	$  -	100%	$41.25
47	54	LS3P Associates Ltd.	Charleston, S.C.	A	$40.14	$40.14	$  -	100%	$40.14
48	59	Perkowitz+Ruth Architects	Long Beach, Calif.	A	$40.00	$39.56	$0.44	100%	$40.00
49	69	EYP Architecture & Engineering	Albany	AE	$38.48	$38.44	$0.04	58%	$66.39
50	58	EwingCole	Philadelphia	AE	$38.00	$38.00	$  -	60%	$63.30

 

Top 250: 1-50 | 51-100 | 101-150 | 151-200 | 201- 250

 

Earlier editions of the Top Firms list: 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007

 

 

 

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