After a long period of anemic performance, with growth mostly driven by renovations and additions, the K-12 sector is showing renewed interest in new construction. Consultant Paul Abramson, using data from Dun & Bradstreet, calculates that districts spent about $13.4 billion on construction projects in 2013, about $7.6 billion of which went for new schools (http://bit.ly/1kN4qkv).
Highest-spending regions included Texas-Louisiana-Oklahoma-Arkansas ($2.3 billion, or 17% of the nation’s K-12 total) and Arizona-California-Hawaii-Nevada ($1.68 billion). The lowest-spending regions included debt-plagued Illinois with neighboring states Minnesota and Wisconsin ($651 million) and Alaska-Idaho-Oregon-Washington ($558 million).
High schools are outpacing other K-12 facilities in construction spending, with the dollar value of projected 2014 starts at $4.15 billion, or 44% of the K-12 total. That’s followed by 33% for elementary schools, 23% for middle schools, and <1% for administrative and support projects.
Among the evident design trends: STEM morphing into STEAM with the addition of arts enrichment (sometimes with professional-quality performance spaces) to science, technology, engineering, and math schools; growing enthusiasm for vocational training facilities that provide an alternative to the traditional college prep path; and schools that do a better job of cementing community connections by leveraging local architectural themes.
The push for sustainable K-12 facilities also marches on; at high levels of green, the theme typically suffuses the pedagogy. Hood River (Ore.) Middle School’s Music and Science Building was recently certified net-zero energy by the International Living Future Institute, making it the first public school building to earn the tough-to-achieve designation.
Top K-12 School Sector Architecture Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 K-12 Revenue |
1 | DLR Group | $41,000,000 |
2 | SHW Group | 40,016,000 |
3 | PBK | 35,880,000 |
4 | HMC Architects | 26,097,082 |
5 | Fanning/Howey Associates | 17,877,000 |
6 | Perkins+will | 16,668,514 |
7 | Heery International | 14,994,535 |
8 | NAC|Architecture | 14,494,206 |
9 | LPA | 14,191,442 |
10 | Perkins Eastman | 13,950,000 |
11 | Quattrocchi Kwok Architects | 13,230,000 |
12 | Moseley Architects | 12,521,613 |
13 | Integrus Architecture | 12,229,858 |
14 | Corgan | 10,372,178 |
15 | FGM Architects | 9,846,977 |
16 | NTD Architecture | 9,200,000 |
17 | Parkhill, Smith & Cooper | 8,580,000 |
18 | Symmes Maini & McKee Associates | 8,375,000 |
19 | Stantec | 8,097,800 |
20 | SchenkelShultz Architecture | 7,880,000 |
21 | SEI Design Group | 7,566,000 |
22 | Slaterpaull Architects | 7,500,468 |
23 | DLA Architects | 7,255,830 |
24 | GWWO | 7,047,216 |
25 | BRPH | 6,681,000 |
26 | Legat Architects | 6,630,200 |
27 | Wight & Company | 6,579,000 |
28 | Ashley McGraw Architects | 6,093,874 |
29 | HMFH Architects | 6,032,607 |
30 | BBS Architects | 5,950,250 |
31 | BLDD Architects | 5,750,000 |
32 | LaBella Associates | 5,644,772 |
33 | LS3P | 5,155,547 |
34 | Eppstein Uhen Architects | 4,623,477 |
35 | H+L Architecture | 4,070,997 |
36 | EwingCole | 4,020,000 |
37 | FXFOWLE Architects | 3,940,000 |
38 | Harley Ellis Devereaux | 3,780,000 |
39 | Cooper Carry | 3,402,330 |
40 | Goodwyn Mills & Cawood | 3,399,167 |
41 | CTA Architects Engineers | 3,336,600 |
42 | HKS | 3,142,143 |
43 | Cuningham Group Architecture | 3,052,272 |
44 | Schrader Group Architecture | 3,047,414 |
45 | NORR | 2,976,836 |
46 | Hord Coplan Macht | 2,948,595 |
47 | Ratio Architects | 2,879,009 |
48 | Albert Kahn Associates | 2,775,253 |
49 | IBI Group ? Gruzen Samton | 2,500,000 |
50 | RS&H | 2,450,000 |
51 | Harvard Jolly Architecture | 2,097,387 |
52 | Shepley Bulfinch | 2,000,000 |
53 | Becker Morgan Group | 1,945,649 |
54 | Leo A Daly | 1,787,681 |
55 | Good Fulton & Farrell | 1,704,900 |
56 | KZF Design | 1,490,333 |
57 | Clark Nexsen | 1,441,748 |
58 | Little | 1,410,229 |
59 | LMN Architects | 1,223,400 |
60 | Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates | 1,213,567 |
61 | Environetics | 1,137,965 |
62 | Massa Montalto Architects | 1,056,000 |
63 | VOA Associates | 989,711 |
64 | Mithun | 930,000 |
65 | Gensler | 700,000 |
66 | WHR Architects | 699,316 |
67 | PGAL | 672,000 |
68 | Ennead Architects | 585,055 |
69 | Davis Brody Bond | 570,932 |
70 | DesignGroup | 538,710 |
71 | OZ Architecture | 487,900 |
72 | Kirksey | 466,989 |
73 | HNTB Corp. | 444,786 |
74 | Beyer Blinder Belle | 405,394 |
75 | CO Architects | 386,900 |
76 | RSP Architects | 377,000 |
77 | LawKingdon Architecture | 350,000 |
78 | Ziegler Cooper | 348,762 |
79 | Morris Architects | 335,000 |
80 | Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio | 320,000 |
81 | Cambridge Seven Associates | 305,000 |
82 | Ware Malcomb | 284,000 |
83 | Hoffmann Architects | 260,000 |
84 | CASCO Diversified Corp. | 250,000 |
85 | JRS Architect | 235,000 |
86 | Rosser International | 230,000 |
87 | Page | 229,000 |
88 | Nelson | 210,577 |
89 | Gresham, Smith and Partners | 200,000 |
90 | Hastings+Chivetta Architects | 169,568 |
91 | Nadel | 130,000 |
92 | Epstein | 108,000 |
93 | BSA LifeStructures | 106,426 |
94 | ATA Beilharz Architects | 104,525 |
95 | Niles Bolton Associates | 104,386 |
96 | Hensley Lamkin Rachel | 100,000 |
97 | GBBN Architects | 97,000 |
98 | Sherlock, Smith & Adams | 92,000 |
99 | Lord Aeck Sargent | 75,379 |
100 | Poskanzer Skott | 50,000 |
101 | TEG Architects | 11,928 |
Top K-12 School Sector Engineering Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 K-12 Revenue |
1 | AECOM Technology Corp. | $50,930,000 |
2 | URS Corp. | 47,642,239 |
3 | Jacobs | 35,150,000 |
4 | Parsons Brinckerhoff | 20,057,993 |
5 | TTG | 12,352,642 |
6 | STV | 8,018,000 |
7 | Shive-Hattery | 5,975,671 |
8 | KCI Technologies | 4,800,000 |
9 | Dewberry | 4,340,398 |
10 | Joseph R. Loring & Associates | 4,300,000 |
11 | Heapy Engineering | 4,079,921 |
12 | Thornton Tomasetti | 3,617,144 |
13 | Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates | 3,380,000 |
14 | Allen & Shariff | 3,000,000 |
15 | Interface Engineering | 2,934,922 |
16 | KJWW Engineering Consultants | 2,878,919 |
17 | Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor | 2,800,000 |
18 | Brinjac Engineering | 2,677,720 |
19 | Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | 2,610,000 |
20 | M/E Engineering | 2,531,610 |
21 | Primera Engineers | 2,357,000 |
22 | French & Parrello Associates | 2,297,300 |
23 | Coffman Engineers | 2,147,260 |
24 | Henderson Engineers | 2,103,903 |
25 | Bridgers & Paxton Consulting Engineers | 2,024,344 |
26 | RDK Engineers | 1,880,000 |
27 | Wallace Engineering | 1,691,000 |
28 | KPFF Consulting Engineers | 1,625,000 |
29 | H.F. Lenz | 1,619,250 |
30 | Highland Associates | 1,600,000 |
31 | KLH Engineers | 1,384,045 |
32 | Glumac | 1,306,149 |
33 | AKF Group | 1,299,000 |
34 | Rist-Frost-Shumway Engineering | 1,000,000 |
35 | Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber | 1,000,000 |
36 | CJL Engineering | 994,410 |
37 | TLC Engineering for Architecture | 967,161 |
38 | M-E Engineers | 966,000 |
39 | Walter P Moore and Associates | 937,062 |
40 | Vanderweil Engineers | 808,300 |
41 | Karpinski Engineering | 720,037 |
42 | Sparling | 682,833 |
43 | Martin/Martin | 674,166 |
44 | SSOE Group | 664,516 |
45 | RMF Engineering | 650,000 |
46 | Aon Fire Protection Engineering Corp. | 540,000 |
47 | Newcomb & Boyd | 534,136 |
48 | Environmental Systems Design | 521,731 |
49 | Guernsey | 502,819 |
50 | I. C. Thomasson Associates | 500,000 |
51 | G&W Engineering Corp. | 484,000 |
52 | Wick Fisher White | 446,553 |
53 | Arup | 431,084 |
54 | CTLGroup | 400,000 |
55 | OLA Consulting Engineers | 308,400 |
56 | Kamm Consulting | 286,426 |
57 | DeSimone Consulting Engineers | 262,015 |
58 | GRW | 189,200 |
59 | Zak Companies | 178,364 |
60 | Dunham Associates | 150,000 |
61 | Mazzetti | 149,031 |
62 | Davis, Bowen & Friedel | 132,028 |
63 | Affiliated Engineers | 112,000 |
64 | Spectrum Engineers | 93,110 |
65 | Magnusson Klemencic Associates | 76,069 |
Top K-12 School Sector Construction Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 K-12 Revenue |
1 | Gilbane | $480,230,252 |
2 | Turner Construction | 419,619,000 |
3 | Balfour Beatty US | 372,288,885 |
4 | CORE Construction Group | 278,177,865 |
5 | Skanska USA | 212,802,648 |
6 | Swinerton Builders | 182,000,000 |
7 | Kraus-Anderson Construction | 181,000,000 |
8 | JE Dunn Construction | 167,798,654 |
9 | Consigli Construction | 151,997,147 |
10 | Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The | 146,933,150 |
11 | Adolfson & Peterson Construction | 142,957,713 |
12 | Barton Malow | 142,524,833 |
13 | McCarthy Holdings | 140,400,000 |
14 | PCL Construction | 122,996,983 |
15 | Tutor Perini Corp. | 120,049,254 |
16 | McShane Companies, The | 118,124,887 |
17 | Flintco | 110,350,000 |
18 | KBE Building Corp. | 89,239,714 |
19 | Bernards | 85,000,000 |
20 | Sundt Construction | 69,522,647 |
21 | Absher Construction | 67,476,142 |
22 | LeChase Construction Services | 65,600,000 |
23 | Walsh Group, The | 62,965,887 |
24 | Wight & Company | 61,092,000 |
25 | Lend Lease | 59,255,000 |
26 | Haselden Construction | 55,166,396 |
27 | LPCiminelli | 54,810,831 |
28 | Shawmut Design and Construction | 51,000,000 |
29 | Ryan Companies US | 48,316,285 |
30 | URS Corp. | 47,642,239 |
31 | Yates Companies, The | 42,800,000 |
32 | Pepper Construction | 35,760,000 |
33 | C.W. Driver | 35,595,000 |
34 | E.W. Howell | 33,818,000 |
35 | Coakley & Williams Construction | 32,267,167 |
36 | Brasfield & Gorrie | 30,364,402 |
37 | Choate Construction | 30,237,395 |
38 | Bette Companies, The | 29,375,000 |
39 | S. M. Wilson & Co. | 25,725,568 |
40 | Suffolk Construction | 25,620,266 |
41 | EMJ Corp. | 24,000,000 |
42 | Parsons Brinckerhoff | 20,057,993 |
43 | Manhattan Construction | 19,124,000 |
44 | New South Construction | 17,650,000 |
45 | Hill & Wilkinson | 17,026,000 |
46 | Kitchell Corp. | 16,545,918 |
47 | Heery International | 14,994,535 |
48 | HITT Contracting | 14,900,000 |
49 | Robins & Morton | 13,176,447 |
50 | W. M. Jordan Company | 12,735,471 |
51 | Messer Construction | 12,453,591 |
52 | Structure Tone | 12,081,000 |
53 | Hill International | 12,000,000 |
54 | Boldt Company, The | 11,978,048 |
55 | Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction | 11,690,000 |
56 | James G. Davis Construction | 10,187,161 |
57 | Stalco Construction | 10,040,000 |
58 | STV | 8,018,000 |
59 | Hunt Construction Group | 7,000,000 |
60 | O'Neil Industries/W.E. O'Neil | 5,825,412 |
61 | Weis Builders | 3,389,000 |
62 | Beck Group, The | 3,117,539 |
63 | Allen & Shariff | 3,000,000 |
64 | Linbeck Group | 2,590,000 |
65 | Batson-Cook | 1,810,861 |
66 | Hoar Construction | 1,769,000 |
67 | Clark Group | 1,731,296 |
68 | James McHugh Construction | 1,460,905 |
69 | Weitz Company, The | 1,434,533 |
70 | IMC Construction | 1,433,690 |
71 | Astorino | 743,040 |
72 | JLL | 242,655 |
Read BD+C's full 2014 Giants 300 Report
Related Stories
Giants 400 | Feb 5, 2024
Top 90 Shopping Mall, Big Box Store, and Strip Center Architecture Firms for 2023
Gensler, Arcadis North America, Core States Group, WD Partners, and MBH Architects top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest shopping mall, big box store, and strip center architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Laboratories | Feb 5, 2024
DOE selects design-build team for laboratory focused on clean energy innovation
JE Dunn Construction and SmithGroup will construct the 127,000-sf Energy Materials and Processing at Scale (EMAPS) clean energy laboratory in Colorado to create a direct path from lab-scale innovations to pilot-scale production.
Architects | Feb 2, 2024
SRG Partnership joins CannonDesign to form 1,300-person design giant across 18 offices
SRG Partnership, a dynamic architecture, interiors and planning firm with studios in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington, has joined CannonDesign. This merger represents not only a fusion of businesses but a powerhouse union of two firms committed to making a profound difference through design.
Giants 400 | Feb 1, 2024
Top 90 Restaurant Architecture Firms for 2023
Chipman Design Architecture, WD Partners, Greenberg Farrow, GPD Group, and Core States Group top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest restaurant architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.
Standards | Feb 1, 2024
Prioritizing water quality with the WELL Building Standard
In this edition of Building WELLness, DC WELL Accredited Professionals Hannah Arthur and Alex Kircher highlight an important item of the WELL Building Standard: water.
Luxury Residential | Feb 1, 2024
Luxury 16-story condominium building opens in Chicago
The Chicago office of architecture firm Lamar Johnson Collaborative (LJC) yesterday announced the completion of Embry, a 58-unit luxury condominium building at 21 N. May St. in Chicago’s West Loop.
Industry Research | Jan 31, 2024
ASID identifies 11 design trends coming in 2024
The Trends Outlook Report by the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) is the first of a three-part outlook series on interior design. This design trends report demonstrates the importance of connection and authenticity.
Museums | Jan 30, 2024
Meier Partners' South Korean museum seeks to create a harmonious relationship between art and nature
For the design of the newly completed Sorol Art Museum in Gangneung, South Korea, Meier Partners drew from Korean Confucianism to achieve a simplicity of form, material, and composition and a harmonious relationship with nature. The museum is scheduled to open on February 14. It is the firm’s first completed project since restructuring as Meier Partners.
Luxury Residential | Jan 30, 2024
Lumen Fox Valley mall-to-apartments conversion completes interiors
Architecture and interior design firm Morgante Wilson Architects (MWA) today released photos of its completed interiors work at Lumen Fox Valley, a 304-unit luxury rental community and mall-to-apartments conversion.
Airports | Jan 30, 2024
Rafael Viñoly Architects’ design for the new Florence, Italy, airport terminal will feature a rooftop vineyard
At Florence, Italy’s Aeroporto Amerigo Vespucci, the new international airport terminal will feature a fully operating vineyard on the facility’s rooftop. Designed by Rafael Viñoly Architects, the terminal is expected to see over 5.9 million passengers annually. Renderings for the project have recently been released.