ENR Mountain States is nearly complete with research for our annual top design firms lists for 2013. These lists are based on 2012 revenues for work on projects located in the Mountain States region (Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho), as reported to us by the firms themselves. Even though we are still in the process of compiling the final lists, we wanted to share the early results with our readers to give you a taste of what’s to come in the June issue of the magazine.
The good news is that design revenues appear to be up around the region, with more work coming into the pipeline and more firms reporting they are busier than this time last year. That, despite the most recent report from AIA’s Architecture Billings Index, which shows that the March ABI score was 51.9, down from a mark of 54.9 in February, further evidence of the uneven economic recovery across the country.
Intermountain-area firms (Utah, Idaho and Montana) on this year’s preliminary top 20 designers list include (not in ranked order): Forsgren Associates Inc., HDR, Applied GeoTech, Horrocks Engineers, SWCA Environmental Consultants, Morrison-Maierle Inc., Spectrum Engineers Inc., FFKR Architects, Sunrise Engineering Inc., MWH Global, Stanley Consultants, Parsons Brinckerhoff, Raba Kistner Inc., MHTN Architects Inc., Jones & DeMille Engineering Inc., Architectural Nexus, CRSA, H.W. Lochner Inc., GSBS Architects, and Terracon Consultants Inc.
On the Colorado and Wyoming side of the region, the 20 firms that are likely to make this year’s list (again, in no particular order), are: The RMH Group Inc., Vision Land Consultants Inc., Felsburg Holt & Ullevig, HDR, Stantec, AECOM Technology Corp., H+L Architecture, Merrick & Co., CTL Thompson Inc., ARCADIS U.S., Parsons Brinckerhoff, MWH Global, Carollo Engineers Inc., Burns & McDonnell, Gensler, Davis Partnership Architects, Terracon Consultants Inc., Martin/Martin Inc., OZ Architecture, and Atkins.
Remember, these firms are presented here in random order. These designers are most likely to make our final top 20 cut, but this list is not final nor are these companies ranked here by their revenues. The final, ranked lists will appear in the June issue of ENR Mountain States magazine.
Out top designers issue will also include lists of the top green firms in the region, ranked by the amount of sustainable work they did in the region last year. Those lists could include, for Intermountain-area designers (in no particular order): Architectural Design West; GSBS Architects; Psomas; Architectural Nexus; Pasker, Gould, Ames & Weaver Architects Inc.; Spectrum Engineers Inc.; CRSA; CSHQA; and Reaveley Engineers + Associates.
In Colorado and Wyoming, the green headliners include (in random order): The RMH Group Inc., Vision Land Consultants Inc., DLR Group, Davis Partnership Architects, MOA Architecture, H+L Architecture, Fentress Architects, M-E Engineers Inc., BURKETTDESIGN Inc. and OZ Architecture.
Final rankings for sustainable work will also appear in the same issue of ENR Mountain States. Our research was based on surveys completed by the firms themselves earlier this year on their regional design work and revenue from the 2012 fiscal year.
Also, we will announce our design firm(s) of the year for the region soon, so stay tuned.