flexiblefullpage
billboard
interstitial1
catfish1
Currently Reading

Top U.S. cities for design professionals

Top U.S. cities for design professionals

Creativity is not as concentrated on the coasts as one may think.


By Adilla Menayang, Assistant Editor | July 9, 2014

Step aside New York and L.A., The Atlantic’s CityLab finds that not all design jobs have these two trendy hotspots as their epicenters.

CityLab Editor at Large Richard Florida worked together with occupational data provided by the labor market data and research firm EMSI to identify geographic clusters of the design sector – architects and landscape architects; commercial and industrial designers, graphic designers, fashion designers, interior designer, and others. His analysis included both designers working for firms and self-employed freelancers.

Around 625,000 Americans are employed in the design sector, a decline of about 12,000 since the Great Recession.

The analyst zoomed into specific metro areas (those with more than a million people) and mapped out the number of workers in the design sector, median wages and regional share of designers for the largest 51 U.S. metros.

Florida developed a stat named the location quotient (LQ), which measures the concentration of a given occupation in a metro area to its concentration across the country. Hence, an LQ of 1 indicates the occupation’s share matches the national average, an LQ of 2 is double that, and so on.

Though the concentration of fashion designers expectedly falls on New York first and L.A. second, Florida’s findings indicate four clusters of design fields concentrated in a city other than those two, and here they are:

 

Detroit – Commercial and Industrial Designers

Commercial and industrial designers that design manufactured products like cars, toys and appliances are centered in the rust belt, with Detroit’s LQ leading at 5.7.

 

Seattle – Architects

With an LQ of 2.42, Seattle was far above New York, which came in tenth, and Los Angeles, which came in twentieth.

 

Minneapolis – Graphic Designers

The Twin Cities tops the list of graphic designers with an LQ of 1.7., which Florida thinks is “driven by its long-standing strength as a center for marketing and advertising.”

 

San Francisco – Self-employed Designers

It’s only natural that San Francisco, the hub of start-ups, would also invite a lot of independent, self-employed designers of all fields. With an LQ of 2.06, the City by the Bay is ahead of Los Angeles and New York, with tech hubs San Jose, San Diego and Austin between them.

Visit CityLab to learn more and view maps of the United States with bubbles showing the concentration of workers in the design sector.

Related Stories

Industry Research | Jan 23, 2024

Leading economists forecast 4% growth in construction spending for nonresidential buildings in 2024

Spending on nonresidential buildings will see a modest 4% increase in 2024, after increasing by more than 20% last year according to The American Institute of Architects’ latest Consensus Construction Forecast. The pace will slow to just over 1% growth in 2025, a marked difference from the strong performance in 2023.

Giants 400 | Jan 23, 2024

Top 110 Medical Office Building Architecture Firms for 2023

SmithGroup, CannonDesign, E4H Environments for Health Architecture, and Perkins Eastman top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest medical office building architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report.

Giants 400 | Jan 22, 2024

Top 100 Outpatient Facility Architecture Firms for 2023

HDR, CannonDesign, Stantec, Perkins&Will, and ZGF top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest outpatient facility architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes design revenue for work related to outpatient medical buildings, including cancer centers, heart centers, urgent care facilities, and other medical centers.

Construction Costs | Jan 22, 2024

Construction material prices continue to normalize despite ongoing challenges

Gordian’s most recent Quarterly Construction Cost Insights Report for Q4 2023 describes an industry still attempting to recover from the impact of COVID. This was complicated by inflation, weather, and geopolitical factors that resulted in widespread pricing adjustments throughout the construction materials industries.

Transit Facilities | Jan 22, 2024

Top 40 Transit Facility Architecture Firms for 2023

Perkins&Will, HDR, Gensler, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and HNTB top BD+C's ranking of the nation's largest transit facility architecture and architecture engineering (AE) firms for 2023, as reported in the 2023 Giants 400 Report. Note: This ranking includes design revenue for work related to bus terminals, rail terminals, and transit stations.

Hotel Facilities | Jan 22, 2024

U.S. hotel construction is booming, with a record-high 5,964 projects in the pipeline

The hotel construction pipeline hit record project counts at Q4, with the addition of 260 projects and 21,287 rooms over last quarter, according to Lodging Econometrics.

Modular Building | Jan 19, 2024

Virginia is first state to adopt ICC/MBI offsite construction standards

Virginia recently became the first state to adopt International Code Council/Modular Building Institute off-site construction standards.

Office Buildings | Jan 19, 2024

How to strengthen office design as employees return to work

Adam James, AIA, Senior Architect, Design Collaborative, shares office design tips for the increasingly dynamic workplace.

Modular Building | Jan 19, 2024

Building with shipping containers not as eco-friendly as it seems

With millions of shipping containers lying empty at ports around the world, it may seem like repurposing them to construct buildings would be a clear environmental winner. The reality of building with shipping containers is complicated, though, and in many cases isn’t a net-positive for the environment, critics charge, according to a report by NPR's Chloe Veltman.

Adaptive Reuse | Jan 18, 2024

Coca-Cola packaging warehouse transformed into mixed-use complex

The 250,000-sf structure is located along a now defunct railroad line that forms the footprint for the city’s multi-phase Beltline pedestrian/bike path that will eventually loop around the city.

boombox1
boombox2
native1

More In Category

Geothermal Technology

Rochester, Minn., plans extensive geothermal network

The city of Rochester, Minn., home of the famed Mayo Clinic, is going big on geothermal networks. The city is constructing Thermal Energy Networks (TENs) that consist of ambient pipe loops connecting multiple buildings and delivering thermal heating and cooling energy via water-source heat pumps.




halfpage1

Most Popular Content

  1. 2021 Giants 400 Report
  2. Top 150 Architecture Firms for 2019
  3. 13 projects that represent the future of affordable housing
  4. Sagrada Familia completion date pushed back due to coronavirus
  5. Top 160 Architecture Firms 2021

Â