Top Design

A ranking of architectural and engineering firms in the Southeast

By Scott Judy

This year’s ranking of the region’s top design firms includes 122 architectural and engineering firms from the magazine’s territory of Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

That’s just a slight increase over the 117 firms that participated last year, but a major jump in the collective value of regional billings reported by this year’s Top Design firms. Last year, the collective regional billings for our Top Design ranking totaled approximately $2.7 billion. This year, that figure jumped to just slightly less than $3.9 billion.

The Top Design ranking is based upon company-provided information indicating each firm’s 2006 billings figures for projects performed in Florida, Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Aside from the addition of a few newcomers to this year’s listing, the top portion of this year’s ranking is remarkably similar to last year’s.

PBS &J of Tampa once again took the top spot, doing so for the fourth year in a row. The engineering giant reported approximately $301.7 million in billings from the four-state area and total worldwide billings of $537 million. Both of those numbers are improvements over the amounts the firm reported for last year’s ranking, which were $283 million in regional revenue and worldwide billings of $521 million.

That is fairly remarkable, given the firm’s well-publicized troubles in the past few years. PBS&J’s former CFO, Scott DeLoach, and two other managers were convicted earlier this year on charges related to a long-term employee embezzlement scheme that resulted in the company owing millions of dollars in restitution to several agencies, including the Florida Department of Transportation.

For more on PBS&J’s recent situation and future, see “PBS&J: Lessons Learned?” elsewhere in this issue.

The Ranking There was remarkable consistency between this year’s ranking and last year’s. CH2M Hill again took second place, this year reporting a regional total of about $228 million.

Also retaining its position from last year’s ranking was Kimley-Horn and Associates of Raleigh, N.C., which closed the gap significantly on CH2M Hill but again placed third with roughly $227.8 million. Mactec Engineering and Consulting of Alpharetta, Ga., again took fourth place with a reported $167 million in ‘06 billings from the four-state area.

Two firms that are new to Southeast Construction’s ranking placed fifth and sixth. PB – formerly Parsons Brinckerhoff and other subsidiaries - came in fifth with about $155 million in regional billings during 2006. Colorado-based Arcadis was one step behind, placing sixth with about $148.6 million in Southeast revenue in ‘06.

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From there, Omaha-based HDR placed seventh with roughly $132.3 million in 2006 Southeast billings. It was followed by Pasadena, Calif.-based Parsons, which debuted on this year’s ranking in the eighth position with $127.6 million in regional revenue.

Reynolds Smith and Hills of Jacksonville, Fla., followed in ninth with nearly $101.6 million in billings, while Jordan, Jones & Goulding, Norcross, Ga., reported $83.4 million for ‘06 to finish out the top 10.

Other Survey Findings On a state-by-state basis, cumulative design billings were up significantly in all four states. Florida experienced the largest dollar growth, improving from nearly $1.75 billion in last year’s ranking to the approximately $2.4 billion represented in the current listing.

The amount of billings reported from Georgia also was greater this year, from the $581.1 million included last year to the $661.6 million of this year.

Billings from North Carolina jumped considerably, too, from $285 million in last year’s ranking to the $492 million represented here. South Carolina billings also increased, from the nearly $143 million of ‘05 to the $273.5 million of ‘06 billings.

Southeast Construction also asked firms to report their total worldwide billings. On this measure, CH2M Hill took the top spot, with roughly $2.3 billion in worldwide billings. PB placed second on this list, with approximately $1.7 billion in worldwide revenue. Parsons was third worldwide, with a $1.5 billion tally.

HDR placed fourth for worldwide business, reporting roughly $872.5 million. Arcadis took the fifth spot here, with $651.8 million in total billings.

To be included in future surveys, please send an e-mail to Scott Judy, editor, at scott_judy@mcgraw-hill.com.