Architecture & Design (A&D)Business Insights

Top 50 Design Firms

Design firms were hopeful at the beginning of the year, anticipating that 2020 would bring the tenth year of straight growth. Those hopes for a decade-long boon were dashed, however, as the coronavirus emerged as a public health emergency in the United States in late January. Officials issued quarantine orders and work began to slow down—and in some jurisdictions—halt. Design firms, like the rest of the economy, are watching day by day to see how their markets will be impacted long term.

Taking a look back at last year, the rise in the markets can be seen in the data collected on revenue earned in 2019 from the participants of Engineering News-Record’s (ENR) Top 500 Design Firms list. ENR, a sister publication to Floor Trends, reported that as a group, the firms had a record total design revenue of $103.24 billion in 2019—up 2.1% from $101.16 billion in 2018. Market growth was up on the domestic side, rising 8.9% to $86.80 billion in 2019 from $80.55 billion in 2018. But revenue from projects outside the U.S. fell 20.2%, to $16.44 billion. The following is a snapshot of the Top 50 Design Firms. For the complete list, visit enr.com.

RANK 2020	RANK 2019	FIRM	CITY	FIRM TYPE	TOTAL REVENUE ($ MIL)	INT'L REVENUE ($ MIL)
1	1	JACOBS	Dallas	EAC	9,676.80	2,844.00
2	2	AECOM	Los Angeles	EA	7,967.50	3,530.30
3	4	KBR	Houston	EC	3,331.00	1,148.00
4	5	TETRA TECH	Pasadena, Calif.	E	3,179.00	891
5	6	WOOD	Houston	EC	2,680.60	624.8
6	7	HDR	Omaha	EA	2,325.60	252.7
7	8	WSP	New York	E	1,984.30	10.9
8	9	STANTEC	Irvine, Calif.	EAL	1,881.00	0
9	10	BURNS MCDONNELL	Kansas City, Mo.	EAC	1,795.90	103.8
10	14	GENSLER	Los Angeles	A	1,523.10	229.6
11	12	BLACK & VEATCH	Overand Park, Kan.	EC	1,510.60	433.4
12	11	PARSONS	Centreville, Va.	EC	1,510.30	362.5
13	13	ARCADIS NORTH AMERICA/ CALLISON RTKL	Highlands Ranch, Colo.	EA	1,492.00	209
14	16	HNTB COS.	Kansas City, Mo.	EA	1,414.90	3.7
15	15	INTERTEK-PSI	Arlington Heights, Ill.	O	1,395.60	676.3
16	18	SNC-LAVALIN	Tampa	EC	1,143.90	0
17	21	KIMLEY-HORN	Raleigh, N.C.	E	1,120.60	4.5
18	19	GOLDER	Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.	E	1,109.30	804
19	17	BECHTEL	Reston, Va.	EC	1,037.00	431
20	20	TRC COS.	Lowell, Mass.	EC	999	0
21	22	LEIDOS	Reston, Va.	E	995.5	10
22	24	TERRACON CONSULTANTS	Olathe, Kan.	E	813	1
23	31	KIEWIT	Omaha, Neb.	EC	791.3	33.5
24	27	S&B ENGINEERES AND CONSTRUCTORS	Houston	EC	782.9	6.1
25	23	CDM SMITH	Boston	EC	759.9	103.6
26	25	GHD	Irvine, Calif.	E/ENV	707.2	234.8
27	34	NV5 GLOBAL	Hollywood, Fla.	E	683.4	21.7
28	26	PERKINS AND WILL	Chicago	A	670.3	140
29	33	MOTT MACDONALD	Iselin, N.J.	E	633.9	71.1
30	28	EXP	Chicago	EA	634.9	345.3
31	29	MICHAEL BAKER INTERNATIONAL	Pittsburgh, Pa.	EA	593.6	5.2
32	32	STV GROUP	New York City	EA	582.5	13.2
33	35	GANNETT FLEMING	Camp Hill, Pa.	EA	552.5	29.2
34	36	POWER ENGINEERS	Hailey, Idaho	E	509.7	28.7
35	37	HOK	St. Louis	AE	485	103
36	38	DEWBERRY	Fairfax, Va.	EA	470.9	2.8
37	40	SARGENT & LUNDY	Chicago	E	470.8	55.9
38	43	T.Y. LIN INTERNATIONAL	San Francisco	EA	467.6	258.1
39	39	ARUP	New York	E	454.2	75.9
40	41	BROWN AND CALDWELL	Walnut Creek, Calif.	E	452	0
41	58	WILLDAN	Anaheim, Calif.	E	443	0
42	42	HKS	Dallas	A	435.6	60.5
43	44	SKIDMORE OWINGS & MERRILL	New York	AE	382.5	163.2
44	45	IBI GROUP	Columbus, Ohio	AE	369.6	256.6
45	46	FUGRO USA HOLDING	Houston	GE	368.2	43.9
46	47	GEOSYNTEC CONSULTANTS	Boca Raton, Fla.	E	360.3	51.3
47	51	HARGROVE ENGINEERS + CONSTRUCTORS	Mobile, Ala.	EC	336.4	0
48	52	RS&H	Jacksonville, Fla.	EA	332	0
49	48	CARDNO	Lone Tree, Colo.	E/ENV	331.9	12.8
50	56	CHA CONSULTING	Albany, N.Y.	EA	330.5	16.6

Key to Type of Firm: A=architect, E=engineer, EC=engineer-contractor AE=architect-engineer, EA=engineer-architect, ENV=environmental, GE=geotechnical engineer, L=landscape architect, P=planner, and O=other.

Other combinations are possible. Firms classified themselves.

Source: ENR 2020 Top Design Firms. To learn more, visit enr.com.