Many firms that do office design and construction stayed afloat during the recession with modest projects—fit-outs, renovations, targeted green retrofits. But the sector’s finally heating up.
Commercial Realtors recently reported an increase in annual gross income for the third year in a row (www.BDCnetwork.com/Realtors2013). Jones Lang LaSalle’s latest office forecast pegged more than a dozen metros as being in “a rising phase,” including Austin, Dallas, Boston, Denver, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis, and New York (http://bit.ly/JLLOffice13).
Though speculative projects still lag, corporate HQs and medical office buildings are moving ahead. “The medical office building of the future can accommodate much of what was done in a traditional hospital setting,” says Steve Straus, President of Glumac. “Some of our clients have bold ambitions, including net-zero.”
TOP OFFICE SECTOR ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
2012 Office Revenue ($)1 Gensler $462,700,5002 HOK $128,726,0003 Perkins+Will $107,951,6724 NBBJ $64,002,0005 Stantec $62,500,2366 PageSoutherlandPage $43,190,0007 Heery International $39,443,9318 Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates $38,081,0009 RTKL Associates $37,474,00010 Hammel, Green and Abrahamson $37,307,000
TOP OFFICE SECTOR ENGINEERING FIRMS
2012 Office Revenue ($)1 AECOM Technology Corp. $830,320,0002 Parsons Brinckerhoff $146,400,0003 Jacobs Engineering Group $95,180,0004 Burns & McDonnell $82,020,0005 Thornton Tomasetti $50,861,4676 Michael Baker Jr. $50,720,0007 WSP USA $48,500,1628 Arup $32,355,6079 Buro Happold Consulting Engineers $28,720,00010 AKF Group $26,917,000
TOP OFFICE SECTOR CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
2012 Office Revenue ($)1 Turner Corporation, The $2,195,790,0002 Structure Tone $1,435,332,0003 PCL Construction Enterprises $1,409,212,7274 Clark Group $974,974,0665 Skanska USA $847,106,2426 Balfour Beatty $792,915,5767 Gilbane $690,915,0008 JE Dunn Construction $613,825,5639 James G Davis Construction $575,006,00010 HITT Contracting $535,524,009
On the West Coast, tech firms are creating eye-popping campuses, including NBBJ projects for Amazon (Seattle, 3.3 million sf); Samsung (San Jose, 1.1 million sf, with Arup); and Google (Mountain View, Calif., 1 million sf). Facebook tapped Frank Gehry to design its 420,000-sf Facebook West in Menlo Park, Calif., and Foster + Partners is designing Apple’s 2.8 million-sf, net-zero Campus 2 in Cupertino (to be built by DPR-Skanska.)
Bleeding-edge companies seek the latest in social engineering and sustainability, but they’re not alone in believing that generational and technological trends justify a reboot in office design. “The relevance of ‘the office’ is in question,” says Steve Hart, Director of Interior Design at Heery. “Why are you even in an office? We believe the office needs to help individuals feel connected to the company and support a common sense of purpose.”
Read BD+C's full Giants 300 Report
Related Stories
| Apr 16, 2012
UNT lab designed to study green energy technologies completed
Lab to test energy technologies and systems in order to achieve a net-zero consumption of energy.
| Apr 16, 2012
Shawmut awarded Tag Heuer builds in Florida and Pennsylvania
Both projects are scheduled to be completed this spring.
| Apr 16, 2012
Batson-Cook breaks ground on senior living center in Brunswick, Ga.
Marks the third Benton House project constructed by Batson-Cook.
| Apr 16, 2012
Altoon + Porter Architects renamed Altoon Partners
The global practice, with offices in Los Angeles, Amsterdam, and Shanghai, specializes in retail, residential and mixed-use developments.
| Apr 16, 2012
Drake joins EYP as science and technology project executive
Drake’s more than 30 years of diversified design and project delivery experience spans a broad range of complex building types.
| Apr 16, 2012
$80 million in export financing for solar project in India
The project, “Rajasthan Sun Technique Energy Private Limited,” is a subsidiary of Reliance Power and is being co-financed by the Asian Development Bank and FMO, the Dutch development bank.
| Apr 13, 2012
Arcadis merges with Davis Langon & Seah
Merger will help company expand business in Asia.
| Apr 13, 2012
Goettsch Partners designs new music building for Northwestern
The showcase facility is the recital hall, an intimate, two-level space with undulating walls of wood that provide optimal acoustics and lead to the stage, as well as a 50-foot-high wall of cable-supported, double-skin glass
| Apr 13, 2012
Best Commercial Modular Buildings Recognized
Judges scored building entries on a number of criteria including architectural excellence, technical innovation, cost effectiveness, energy efficiency, and calendar days to complete, while marketing pieces were judged on strategy, implementation, and quantifiable results. Read More