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
| Aug 11, 2010
AIA hires Worthen, Fitzgerald for sustainability, young architects initiatives
As part of an ongoing effort to bolster its education and outreach on sustainability, the American Institute of Architects has hired William J. Worthen, AIA, LEED AP, vice president of Simon & Associates (a green consulting firm) as Director and Resource Architect for Sustainability. The AIA has also hired Kevin A. Fitzgerald, AIA, a former associate with Robert AM Stern Architects, as a staff coordinator/team leader for several AIA committees devoted to young architects.
| Aug 11, 2010
Perkins+Will acquires Canadian firm Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners
Shore Tilbe Irwin & Partners of Toronto, Ont., Canada, has been acquired by Perkins+Will, a global integrated design firm headquartered in Chicago. The merger marks Perkins+Will's 19th office in North America and its second in Canada.
| Aug 11, 2010
NBBJ and C.T. Hsu associates join forces for Florida healthcare market
NBBJ has entered into an exclusive alliance agreement with C.T. Hsu + Associates P.A. (CTHA) to provide world-class design/planning services for Florida's emerging healthcare and science facilities market. The alliance combines NBBJ's international reputation for the design and planning of healthcare and science & research facilities with CTHA's knowledge of community needs and established reputation for planning and design expertise in Central Florida.
| Aug 11, 2010
Minneapolis Public Housing authority, Honeywell launch energy retrofit program
Minneapolis Public Housing Authority and Honeywell today announced a $33.6-million energy efficiency and facility renewal program that will help the housing authority improve its infrastructure, reduce its impact on the environment, and save more than $3.7 million in utility costs per year. Local contractors will also complete a majority of the work for the program, one of the largest of its kind for a public housing authority, helping boost the Twin Cities job market.
| Aug 11, 2010
Shepley Bulfinch announces merger of Merzproject
National architecture firm Shepley Bulfinch of Boston and Merzproject of Phoenix today announced their merger. The merger unites Shepley Bulfinch, one of the country’s leading design firms, and Merzproject.
| Aug 11, 2010
Skanska Promotes Richard Kennedy to COO for NY/NJ Metro Area
Skanska USA Building Inc., headquartered in Parsippany, N.J., has announced that Richard Kennedy was promoted to Chief Operating Officer from his previous role as Senior Vice President – General Counsel. Kennedy’s promotion marks the latest addition to Skanska’s national leadership team.
| Aug 11, 2010
The New Yorker's David Owen: Why Manhattan is America's greenest community
David Owen is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of 14 books, most recently Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less Are the Keys to Sustainability, in which he argues that Manhattan is the greenest community in America. He graduated from Harvard and lives in Washington, Conn., where he chairs the town planning commission.
| Aug 11, 2010
Brown Craig Turner opens senior living studio
Baltimore-based architecture and design firm Brown Craig Turner has significantly expanded its housing design capabilities and expertise with the launch of its new senior living studio.
| Aug 11, 2010
George H. Miller, FAIA, inaugurated as 2010 AIA President
George H. Miller, FAIA, partner at Pei Cobb Freed & Partners LLP, was inaugurated as the 86th president of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) during ceremonies held on December 4th.
