Top 100 US Architecture Firms according to Architect Magazine

May 2009

By Nico Saieh — Filed under: Architects ,Architecture News

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Architect Magazine listed the Top 100 U.S. firms based not just on their size, but on three elemental and critical aspects of each one: profitability (revenue per employee, based on 2008 gross revenue), sustainability (with variables such as percentage of LEED projects in 2008 and green policies) and design quality (based on awards on 2008).

Some of this practice have been featured on ArchDaily like Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, Perkins Eastman & SHoP Architects.

Take a look at the complete ranking after the break.

1. William Rawn Associates
2. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill
3. HOK
4. Rafael Viñoly Architects
5. Perkins + Will
6. Gwathmey siegel & Associates Architects
7. BWS Architects
8. DLR Group
9. HDR Architecture
10. BLT Architects
11. Klingstubbins
12. CO Architects
13. Gensler
14. RBB Architects
15. SB Architects
16. Goody Clancy
17. Good Fulton & Farrell
18. BNIM Architects
19. NBBJ
20. Heery International
21. Studios Architecture
22. Einhorn Yaffee Prescott Architecture & Engineering
23. Cooper Robertson & Partners
24. Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects
25. Anshen + Allen
26. Frank Harmon Architect
26. Lord, Aeck & Sargent
28. A.C. Martin Partners
29. Payette
30. Marnell Corrao Associates
31. Fentress Architects
31. Richärd + Bauer
33. William McDonough + Partners
34. HMC Architects
35. Goettsch Partners
36. SHW Group
37. Sera Architects
38. Polshek Partnership Architects
39. Cuningham Group Architecture
40. HGA Architects and Engineers
41. Platt Byard Dovell White
42. HKS
43. Little Diversified Architectural Consulting
44. Elkus Manfredi Architects
45. Smithgroup
46. KTGY group
47. Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz
48. The Jerde Partnership
49. Perkins Eastman
49. Stevens & Wilkinson Stang & Newdow
49. TRO Jung | Brannen
52. MHTN Architects
53. HGA Architects and Engineers
54. FxFowle Architects
55. Flad Architects
56. Gund Partnership
57. Svigals + Partners
58. Office DA
59. Harley Ellis Devereaux
60. Rios Clementi Hale Studios
61. Arrowstreet
62. Kanner Architects
63. Epstein
64. Ehrlich Architects
65. Cannon Design
66. RNL
67. Astorino
68. Leers Weinzapfel Associates
69. Hanbury Evans Wright Vlattas + Co.
70. Ellerbe Becket
71. Ewingcole
72. WWCOT
73. Aguirre Roden
74. Cho Benn Holback + Associates
75. SHoP Architects
76. Design Collective
77. BRPH
78. RDG Planning & Design
79. Machado and Silvetti Associates
80. Worth group Architects
81. CSD Architects
82. Robert A.M. Stern Architects
83. Ross Barney Architects
84. JCJ Architecture
85. Cooper Carry
86. Destefano and Partners
87. Gould Evans
88. Polk Stanley Rowland Curzon Porter Architects
89. Morris Architects
90. NAC | Architecture
91. KA Architecture
92. TVS design
93. Ratcliff
94. El Dorado Architects
95. Ashley McGraw Architects
96. Lake | Flato Architects
97. Ballinger
98. Beatty Harvey & Associates Architects
99. SSOE
100. Moseley Architects

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "Top 100 US Architecture Firms according to Architect Magazine" 27 May 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 09 Feb 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/23244>

Comments (31)
Tweets (14)
Links to this entry (23)

Lucas Gray says:

I had never even heard of William Rawn Associates before.

# May 27, 2009 at 15:32

ashok says:

william rawn!???

# May 28, 2009 at 01:12

sbtrct says:

I have heard of five of these firms, and three of those five are in the top four. Admittedly, I work in Europe, but still…

A casual perusal of randomly chosen links reveals a common thread – a distinctly average collection of large scale built work. I suspect the profitability of these firms was weighted more favourably than the other criteria. Not exactly the raison-d’être of this blog.

# May 28, 2009 at 04:09

Jason says:

no REX.. no Mrophosis.. really?
what a joke!

# May 28, 2009 at 06:27

h says:

William Rawn would be the last of my concerns. They actually do very nice work. Are thye tops? No. But they could be top 100. Just a very brief look at the firms from the bottom up….Look at no. 98,99 & 100. Holy craptastical!

# May 28, 2009 at 09:04

ripbang says:

this list is nutty; if you’ll take look at the full article in the magazine, the way the rankings were determined leave so much room for ambiguity. the rankings are based on the self professed “Revenue per Employee”, percentage of leed APs/Green Projects, and ’08 awards received. the surveys were completed by the firms themselves and leave plenty of room for “embellishment”. it is also worth noting that some of the firms listed in the top 100 have completely imploded this year. For example, DLR has 200 points for having revenue of $100-199.9 million. That’s a pretty broad range of revenue, no?
good luck with that, everyone….

# May 28, 2009 at 11:58

SOM is listed at #2, but I heard that they closed almost the entire LA office early last year. Jerde is listed at #48(?!) and they dwindled from about 110 employees to around 30 in a matter of months. i’m sure that there are similar stories across the boards. what a sad state of affairs.

But forget the money, we’re in this for the fame and the glory, right?

# May 28, 2009 at 12:04

vincenzo says:

where is Steven Holl? Maybe he is Japanese…

# May 28, 2009 at 12:37

Daniel Con says:

What a JOKE!

# May 28, 2009 at 13:26

nono says:

What about Pelli Clarke Pelli Architects?!

# May 28, 2009 at 14:58

biboarchitect says:

morphosis isn’t one of them???

# May 28, 2009 at 15:40

j says:

exactly my sentiments… what a letdown

# November 12, 2009 at 16:17

javi says:

where is KPF?

# May 28, 2009 at 16:07

ron says:

Kohn Pederson Fox

# November 12, 2009 at 17:05

Simon says:

The Architect’s Journal in the UK have just unveiled their AJ100 interactive list of the UK’s biggest practices:
http://aj100.architectsjournal.co.uk/

# May 29, 2009 at 04:02

Katsudon says:

Ah… got it!

prof.2-(sust.*3,1416/inv(award-x/34,9856))=

“Ok guys i’m about to push Enter key.”

# May 30, 2009 at 22:35

hairpiece says:

If you read their criteria this list is based on:
1. Profitability
2. Number of LEED projects
3. Number of Design Awards

First of all, not all offices publish their profit information. So, this list is already limited to those offices chose to share how much money they made this year, or are publicly traded (which aren’t most). Do you think REX or Morphosis want to share their profit information? What would their interns think? It’d be mutiny for sure.

Secondly, the number of LEED projects is also in a way subjective. What if I work on three very large projects, but another office works on five which are a fraction of the total square footage? Also, what if the buildings I design are environmentally friendly, but not LEED? Sure sustainability is important, but a better measure would be an actual direct measure of energy conservation.

And finally, design awards…sigh…what can I say about design awards? Most tend to be as flawed as this list. So now you have a subjective ranking of subjective awards… Is an AIA Gold award weighted more than an local government award? What if I win the Pritzker that year, but nothing else, and another firm wins 3 no-name awards? How do you know if one award is “harder” to win than another? What about B.S. professional organizations like SARA which only exist to give their members awards and beef up their resumes?

Finally, my last point, and most intellectual of the bunch…list a just dumb to begin with.

# December 23, 2009 at 16:31

simone luccichenti says:

Reading: "Top 100 US Architecture Firms according to Architect Magazine | ArchDaily"( http://twitthis.com/q8ooc7 )

# April 26, 2010 at 12:37

kirk says:

Where’s Callison Architecture (callison.com)

# June 10, 2010 at 02:50

EHDD Architecture says:

EHDD ranks No. 20 among architecture firms
http://www.archdaily.com/23244/top-architecture-firms-ranking/

# June 29, 2010 at 19:12

Bbay says:

what the heck, Gensler lost #1? I’ve always assumed they held that spot for a while, but to put them as #13? Did I miss something? did they downsize or perhaps gotten into some trouble I didn’t know about?

# September 24, 2010 at 13:20

Jeff Frame says:

Creating a top 100 list is not easy, and who gets the top spot really depends on the person creating the list. So it’s hard to rely on lists even if they are so called “official lists” since rankings would vary from one criteria to the other. But this is a good guide. At least we know which ones are vying for the top spot.

# December 2, 2010 at 23:41

olayinka olamilehin says:

can someone rate this list in percentage and suggest a better one, so that we can know the true best 50.

# December 14, 2010 at 08:06

Steven says:

Where is studio gang??? http://www.studiogang.net/

# March 23, 2011 at 22:39

Image Bali Architect says:

It’s nice information to know the top 100 architecture firm in the US, very useful for me, thx

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