Multifamily housing construction is expected to remain relatively strong throughout 2014, according to Freddie Mac (http://bit.ly/TJvZ8R). Starts picked up in 2013, with completions due to catch up this year, finally approaching pre-recession levels.
AEC firms are delivering projects that cater to consumers seeking reasonably priced rentals in hot urban markets. Gen Y consumers are more likely than their Boomer antecedents to embrace the notion of renting as a lifelong strategy.
Noting these trends, a Building Team in the Southeast has developed SkyHouse: a branded program that provides high-rise apartments for Gen Y professionals near urban centers, public transportation, and nightlife. Since 2011, eleven SkyHouses have been developed, including finished properties in Orlando, Fla., Austin, Texas, Atlanta, Houston, and Dallas, and buildings under way in Raleigh, N.C., Atlanta, Tampa, Fla., Houston, and Charlotte, N.C.
Novare Group, which is developing the projects with Batson-Cook Development Company, previously specialized in high-rise condos, and wanted to bring a different approach to apartment towers that would cost only marginally more than low to mid-rise multifamily housing.
The SkyHouses consist of vertically stacked units with minimal variation; interiors are tweaked to reflect local market preferences. Separating parking facilities from the towers has reduced construction time and costs.
Jones Lang LaSalle’s U.S. Multifamily Outlook Year-End 2013 (http://bit.ly/1ifRCC4) notes the growing (and “thriving”) activity in this region: “While the housing recovery is causing expansion nationwide, the mending of the hardest hit housing markets in the Sunbelt is driving significant gains in those metros.”
Top Multifamily Architecture Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 Multifamily Revenue |
1 | RTKL Associates | $29,674,000 |
2 | Niles Bolton Associates | 26,257,959 |
3 | Solomon Cordwell Buenz | 26,000,000 |
4 | Architects Orange | 18,989,853 |
5 | WDG Architecture | 18,737,000 |
6 | Stantec | 17,622,016 |
7 | Perkins Eastman | 16,000,000 |
8 | NORR | 11,572,227 |
9 | Ziegler Cooper | 8,815,451 |
10 | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | 8,702,356 |
11 | FXFOWLE Architects | 8,100,000 |
12 | Good Fulton & Farrell | 7,931,000 |
13 | Hord Coplan Macht | 7,794,838 |
14 | HOK | 7,404,036 |
15 | Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates | 7,338,774 |
16 | Gensler | 7,139,176 |
17 | Perkins+will | 7,100,000 |
18 | Mithun | 5,966,000 |
19 | Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio | 5,787,000 |
20 | FitzGerald Associates Architects | 5,464,276 |
21 | VOA Associates | 5,266,818 |
22 | Cooper Carry | 5,055,632 |
23 | OZ Architecture | 4,879,000 |
24 | Beyer Blinder Belle | 4,780,731 |
25 | ZGF Architects | 4,770,730 |
26 | Harley Ellis Devereaux | 4,670,000 |
27 | HKS | 4,641,794 |
28 | Lord Aeck Sargent | 4,585,731 |
29 | EDI International | 4,538,210 |
30 | GBBN Architects | 4,120,000 |
31 | Eppstein Uhen Architects | 3,912,939 |
32 | Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates | 3,795,000 |
33 | Hensley Lamkin Rachel | 3,120,000 |
34 | BLTa | 3,100,000 |
35 | IBI Group ? Gruzen Samton | 3,000,000 |
36 | Nadel | 3,000,000 |
37 | Shepley Bulfinch | 2,803,000 |
38 | Moseley Architects | 2,774,269 |
39 | Callison | 2,697,208 |
40 | Carrier Johnson + Culture | 2,638,036 |
41 | Morris Architects | 2,240,000 |
42 | Cuningham Group Architecture | 2,149,438 |
43 | Montroy Andersen DeMarco | 2,130,000 |
44 | MBH Architects | 1,940,000 |
45 | NAC|Architecture | 1,871,525 |
46 | Commonwealth Architects | 1,627,175 |
47 | Corgan | 1,596,285 |
48 | Symmes Maini & McKee Associates | 1,560,000 |
49 | Clark Nexsen | 1,400,000 |
50 | Page | 1,400,000 |
51 | Goettsch Partners | 1,400,000 |
52 | WATG | Wimberly Interiors | 1,388,000 |
53 | Goodwyn Mills & Cawood | 1,328,694 |
54 | Cambridge Seven Associates | 1,277,000 |
55 | Nelson | 1,254,686 |
56 | Hnedak Bobo Group | 1,205,000 |
57 | Swanke Hayden Connell Architects | 1,200,000 |
58 | Ratio Architects | 1,127,764 |
59 | LS3P | 1,052,598 |
60 | Kirksey | 967,711 |
61 | Sherlock, Smith & Adams | 934,000 |
62 | CTA Architects Engineers | 831,135 |
63 | Leo A Daly | 824,915 |
64 | Hoffmann Architects | 747,000 |
65 | Epstein | 740,000 |
66 | PGAL | 736,900 |
67 | Environetics | 655,268 |
68 | NBBJ | 544,000 |
69 | Davis Brody Bond | 522,616 |
70 | ATA Beilharz Architects | 495,285 |
71 | Hoefer Wysocki Architecture | 410,000 |
72 | Adache Group Architects | 400,000 |
73 | BLDD Architects | 390,000 |
74 | P+R Architects | 381,150 |
75 | Moody Nolan | 361,308 |
76 | Poskanzer Skott | 350,000 |
77 | RNL | 310,000 |
78 | RSP Architects | 264,000 |
79 | Vocon | 262,947 |
80 | CASCO Diversified Corp. | 225,000 |
81 | Baskervill | 218,225 |
82 | Heery International | 196,283 |
83 | Becker Morgan Group | 192,043 |
84 | JRS Architect | 185,000 |
85 | H3 Hardy Collaboration Architecture | 183,452 |
86 | Ennead Architects | 168,902 |
87 | Wight & Company | 161,000 |
88 | Colkitt & Company | 100,000 |
89 | Ashley McGraw Architects | 83,478 |
90 | Integrus Architecture | 59,840 |
91 | Margulies Perruzzi Architects | 48,409 |
92 | KZF Design | 26,017 |
93 | TEG Architects | 20,879 |
94 | Harvard Jolly Architecture | 17,585 |
Top Multifamily Engineering Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 Multifamily Revenue |
1 | AECOM Technology Corp. | $121,890,000 |
2 | URS Corp. | 56,953,263 |
3 | Parsons Brinckerhoff | 36,412,208 |
4 | WSP Group | 24,860,000 |
5 | Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates | 21,180,000 |
6 | DeSimone Consulting Engineers | 20,620,346 |
7 | Jacobs | 15,370,000 |
8 | Thornton Tomasetti | 14,452,161 |
9 | Simpson Gumpertz & Heger | 11,690,000 |
10 | Magnusson Klemencic Associates | 10,137,916 |
11 | STV | 8,519,000 |
12 | Arup | 6,211,364 |
13 | KPFF Consulting Engineers | 6,000,000 |
14 | Bala Consulting Engineers | 5,083,000 |
15 | Dewberry | 4,849,178 |
16 | Interface Engineering | 3,522,946 |
17 | M-E Engineers | 3,429,000 |
18 | Martin/Martin | 2,558,401 |
19 | CTLGroup | 2,330,000 |
20 | Paulus, Sokolowski and Sartor | 2,100,000 |
21 | Glumac | 1,779,976 |
22 | Aon Fire Protection Engineering Corp. | 1,700,000 |
23 | AKF Group | 1,642,000 |
24 | Allen & Shariff | 1,500,000 |
25 | Vanderweil Engineers | 1,494,000 |
26 | KCI Technologies | 1,300,000 |
27 | RDK Engineers | 1,240,000 |
28 | Davis, Bowen & Friedel | 1,176,676 |
29 | Coffman Engineers | 1,161,281 |
30 | M/E Engineering | 1,034,842 |
31 | French & Parrello Associates | 972,500 |
32 | Graef | 821,802 |
33 | I. C. Thomasson Associates | 810,000 |
34 | SSOE Group | 793,545 |
35 | Smith Seckman Reid | 784,137 |
36 | TLC Engineering for Architecture | 780,974 |
37 | OLA Consulting Engineers | 695,000 |
38 | CJL Engineering | 662,940 |
39 | Spectrum Engineers | 557,881 |
40 | GHT Limited | 510,000 |
41 | Guernsey | 417,874 |
42 | RMF Engineering | 400,000 |
43 | H&A Architects & Engineers | 400,000 |
44 | Sparling | 393,807 |
45 | Karpinski Engineering | 370,666 |
46 | Walter P Moore and Associates | 364,810 |
47 | Joseph R. Loring & Associates | 320,000 |
48 | Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon | 320,000 |
49 | Stanley Consultants | 301,510 |
50 | Environmental Systems Design | 290,666 |
51 | Highland Associates | 250,000 |
52 | Wallace Engineering | 233,000 |
53 | Henderson Engineers | 231,482 |
54 | TTG | 216,150 |
55 | Zak Companies | 188,814 |
56 | G&W Engineering Corp. | 178,400 |
57 | Wick Fisher White | 156,293 |
58 | Newcomb & Boyd | 133,995 |
59 | Leidos | 120,000 |
60 | Apogee Consulting Group | 96,875 |
61 | Dunham Associates | 50,000 |
62 | P2S Engineering | 31,535 |
63 | Heapy Engineering | 19,441 |
64 | Total Building Commissioning | 18,405 |
65 | Brinjac Engineering | 12,960 |
Top Multifamily Construction Firms
Rank | Company | 2013 Multifamily Revenue |
1 | Lend Lease | $1,680,438,000 |
2 | Clark Group | 832,640,000 |
3 | Balfour Beatty US | 686,819,862 |
4 | Plaza Construction | 670,000,000 |
5 | Swinerton Builders | 503,250,000 |
6 | Suffolk Construction | 452,592,931 |
7 | Adolfson & Peterson Construction | 325,225,509 |
8 | PCL Construction | 287,254,951 |
9 | Weis Builders | 270,383,000 |
10 | James McHugh Construction | 264,613,678 |
11 | Walsh Group, The | 254,726,672 |
12 | Turner Construction | 244,990,000 |
13 | Summit Contracting Group | 240,984,366 |
14 | Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The | 238,617,178 |
15 | Batson-Cook | 225,076,882 |
16 | Tutor Perini Corp. | 216,439,042 |
17 | JE Dunn Construction | 204,409,132 |
18 | Harkins Builders | 168,000,000 |
19 | McShane Companies, The | 164,546,476 |
20 | Brasfield & Gorrie | 163,127,667 |
21 | Hunt Companies | 148,155,000 |
22 | Bernards | 144,000,000 |
23 | James G. Davis Construction | 123,693,698 |
24 | Kitchell Corp. | 123,591,618 |
25 | Skanska USA | 118,105,783 |
26 | Weitz Company, The | 104,812,724 |
27 | Gilbane | 104,239,380 |
28 | DPR Construction | 102,599,861 |
29 | Hensel Phelps | 99,310,000 |
30 | C.W. Driver | 91,430,000 |
31 | LeChase Construction Services | 78,720,000 |
32 | Power Construction | 74,000,000 |
33 | W. M. Jordan Company | 72,475,701 |
34 | Bette Companies, The | 72,287,000 |
35 | Ryan Companies US | 57,491,712 |
36 | URS Corp. | 56,953,263 |
37 | Structure Tone | 50,290,000 |
38 | Flintco | 46,600,000 |
39 | Douglas Company, The | 45,166,765 |
40 | Hoar Construction | 44,342,000 |
41 | Layton Construction | 43,600,000 |
42 | CORE Construction Group | 42,926,217 |
43 | Absher Construction | 41,419,197 |
44 | Hill International | 40,000,000 |
45 | HITT Contracting | 36,700,000 |
46 | Parsons Brinckerhoff | 36,412,208 |
47 | Walbridge | 34,000,000 |
48 | Paric Corp. | 34,000,000 |
49 | Robins & Morton | 33,809,050 |
50 | Hunt Construction Group | 32,000,000 |
51 | O'Neil Industries/W.E. O'Neil | 31,098,921 |
52 | Kraus-Anderson Construction | 31,000,000 |
53 | Yates Companies, The | 29,600,000 |
54 | Choate Construction | 29,008,583 |
55 | Manhattan Construction | 25,932,000 |
56 | Austin Commercial | 25,565,808 |
57 | Linbeck Group | 21,000,000 |
58 | Haselden Construction | 19,911,322 |
59 | Juneau Construction | 19,007,317 |
60 | Beck Group, The | 18,964,678 |
61 | Messer Construction | 18,394,464 |
62 | KBE Building Corp. | 13,628,837 |
63 | STV | 8,519,000 |
64 | Bomel Construction | 7,894,058 |
65 | LPCiminelli | 7,437,315 |
66 | Consigli Construction | 5,542,121 |
67 | IMC Construction | 4,556,000 |
68 | Pepper Construction | 2,870,000 |
69 | Coakley & Williams Construction | 1,994,991 |
70 | Allen & Shariff | 1,500,000 |
71 | Stalco Construction | 1,010,000 |
72 | EBCO General Contractor | 895,700 |
73 | JLL | 840,400 |
74 | S. M. Wilson & Co. | 722,352 |
75 | New South Construction | 205,000 |
76 | Heery International | 196,283 |
77 | Hill & Wilkinson | 191,000 |
Read BD+C's full 2014 Giants 300 Report
Related Stories
| Sep 23, 2014
Cedars-Sinai looks to streamline trauma care with first-of-its-kind OR360 simulation space
The breakthrough simulation center features moveable walls and a modular ceiling grid that allow doctors and military personnel to easily reconfigure the shape and size of the space.
| Sep 23, 2014
Third phase of New York’s High Line redevelopment opens
The $35 million Phase 3, known as High Line at the Rail Yards, broke ground September 20, 2012, and officially opened to the public on September 21.
| Sep 23, 2014
Cloud-shaped skyscraper complex wins Shenzhen Bay Super City design competition
Forget the cubist, clinical, glass and concrete jungle of today's financial districts. Shenzhen's new plan features a complex of cloud-shaped skyscrapers connected to one another with sloping bridges.
| Sep 23, 2014
Designing with Water: Report analyzes ways coastal cities can cope with flooding
The report contains 12 case studies of cities around the world that have applied advanced flood management techniques.
| Sep 22, 2014
4 keys to effective post-occupancy evaluations
Perkins+Will's Janice Barnes covers the four steps that designers should take to create POEs that provide design direction and measure design effectiveness.
| Sep 22, 2014
NCARB overhauls Intern Development Program, cuts years off licensure process
The newly adopted changes will be implemented in two phases. The first will streamline the program by focusing on the IDP’s core requirements and removing its elective requirements. The second phase will condense the 17 current experience areas into six practice-based categories.
| Sep 22, 2014
Biloxi’s new Maritime and Seafood Industry Museum is like a ship in a bottle
Nine years after the Museum of Maritime and Seafood Industry in Biloxi, Miss., was damaged by Hurricane Katrina’s 30-foot tidal surge, the museum reopened its doors in a brand new, H3-designed building.
| Sep 22, 2014
Swanke-designed Eurasia Tower opens in Moscow
The 72-story tower—the first mixed-use, steel tower in Russia—is located within the new, 30 million-sf, 148-acre Moscow International Business Center.
| Sep 22, 2014
USGBC names 2014 Best of Buildings Award winners
The Best of Building Awards celebrate the year’s best products, projects, organizations and individuals making an impact in green building.
| Sep 20, 2014
Healthcare conversion projects: 5 hard-earned lessons from our experts
Repurposing existing retail and office space is becoming an increasingly popular strategy for hospital systems to expand their reach from the mother ship. Our experts show how to avoid the common mistakes that can sabotage outpatient adaptive-reuse projects.