According to ENR Southeast's latest Top Design Firms survey, the four-state region's engineers and architects—as a group—are continuing to experience only steady progress. As we noted in a recent preview of the related upcoming ranking, this year's respondents reported roughly $3.3 billion in Southest regional revenue during 2014, an improvement over the previous year's $3-billion total. However, a considerable chunk of that increase could be attributed to AECOM's inclusion of revenue resulting from its 2014 acquisition of URS Corp., which had not previously participated in the ENR Southeast survey.
Of course, as always, there was a mix of firms reporting revenue increases as well as decreases via our Top Design Firms survey. And one of this year's more prominent upticks belonged to Kimley-Horn, the Cary, N.C.-based engineering firm. According to the information that Kimley-Horn reported to ENR Southeast, the firm experienced a 16% gain in revenue from the four-state region during 2014. All things considered, that's a solid growth rate, especially considering that no acquisitions contributed to that gain, according to the firm.
As it is nationally, Kimley-Horn is active—and a major player—in a diverse list of sectors, work types and projects across the Southeast. Regionally, for instance, the firm ranks second for its North Carolina revenue, and third overall in Florida and Georgia. Based on project types, the firm also earned top-10 regional rankings in the General Building, Multi-Unit Residential, Retail, Water Supply and Transportation categories.
One of Kimley-Horn's active sectors is traffic engineering. The firm recently posted the following video to its Youtube channel that showcases a pilot project it's working on in Austin, Texas, that aims to use cellphone technology to better integrate bicyclists into the city's traffic flow.
Video by Kimley-Horn
The firm's lineup of Southeast projects also is diverse, and impressive, and includes: Baxter International's $1-billion pharmaceutical manufacturing plant project in Georgia; the Atlanta Braves’ ballpark and mixed-use development projects; a new North Runway at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport; the planned $1.5-billion Miami Worldcenter project; a $135-million Spring Training Complex in West Palm Beach; and Interstate-75 Express Lanes in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, among others.
Based on this, and other, information, ENR editors have selected Kimley-Horn as this year's Southeast Design Firm of the Year. We'll have more information about the firm in ENR Southeast's next print edition, which publishes on May 18.
A note about the 'Firm of the Year' selection process: For the purposes of the its 'Firm of the Year' nomination process, ENR Southeast asks nominees to provide a range of information about various aspects of their business, including revenue, industry outreach, employee programs and sustainability, among others. The nominations are then put forward to a national group of ENR editors, who then vote to determine the Firm of the Year.