Texas’ Top Design Firms

HKS Inc. of Dallas takes the No. 1 spot this year in Texas Construction’s Top Design firm ranking, reporting more than $280 million in Texas billings for 2007.

By Eileen Schwartz

This year’s ranking of the region’s top design firms includes 95 architectural and engineering firms in Texas.

HKS of Dallas claims the top slot in this year’s Top Design ranking. The Dallas-based architecture giant designed the new home for the Dallas Cowboys, a new stadium (http://stadium.dallascowboys.com) being built by Manhattan Construction and scheduled to open for the 2009 NFL season. Image courtesy of HKS.

The number of firms that made the cut off in last year’s ranking was 90. Last year, the collective regional billings for the Top Design ranking totaled approximately $2.9 billion. This year, that figure dipped to $2.6 billion. Worldwide revenue for those firms that work in and out of state totaled more than $19 billion, a $4 billion jump from last year’s collective worldwide total.

The Top Design ranking is based upon company-provided information indicating each firm’s 2007 billings figures for projects performed in Texas.

Top-List Leaders HKS of Dallas claims the top slot in this year’s Top Design ranking. The Dallas-based architecture giant reported approximately $282 million in billings from Texas and total worldwide billings of $377.8 million. Both of those numbers are improvements over the amounts the firm reported for last year’s ranking, which were $83.6 million in regional revenue and worldwide billings of $310.4 million.

The firm also places No. 1 in four subcategories by project type and specialty. Those are interiors, health care/hospital, hospitality/convention centers and sports/recreation.

Also moving up a few places from last year’s ranking to No. 2 is URS Corp., whose Texas operations are based in Austin. In August, LopezGarcia Group of Dallas was acquired by URS. The firm reports roughly $235 million in regional revenue and $5.3 billion in worldwide billings for 2007. By specialty breakout, URS ranked No. 1 in energy and manufacturing/industrial.

AECOM Technology Group, which acquired Earth Tech Inc. of Austin in July, took the third place this year with a reported $122 million in 2007 billings from the Lone Star State and $3.5 billion worldwide.

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CH2M Hill Ltd., with Texas operations based in San Antonio, placed fourth with $122 million in regional billings and Parsons Brinkerhoff, or PB, working out of Houston, came in fifth with $115.

Ranking sixth and seventh are Gensler, Houston, and Kimley-Horn & Associates, Dallas, with $80.1 million and $78.7 respectively.

From there, HDR Inc., Austin, placed eighth. The Omaha-based firm reported $73.5 for its Texas operations. Houston-based PageSoutherlandPage was just behind, in the ninth position with $73.4. million in Texas revenue. Rounding out the top ten is Pape-Dawson Engineers of San Antonio, with $71.9 million.

Other Survey Findings Texas Construction asked all surveyed firms to report their total worldwide billings. On this measure, URS Corp. took the top spot, with roughly $5.3 billion in worldwide billings. AECOM Technology Corp. placed second on the list, with approximately $3.5 billion in worldwide revenue. CH2M Hill was third worldwide, with a $3.1 billion tally. PB placed fourth for worldwide business, reporting roughly $1.2 billion and HDR took the fifth spot, with $1.1 billion in total billings.

Survey results also show that the 95 firms presented on the following pages represent 1,435 licensed architects, 2,569 licensed professional engineers and 1,133 LEED accredited professionals working in Texas.

HKS Inc. led the pack here, with 225 architects, the largest number of any one firm in Texas as well as 220 LEED AP on its staff, the most of any firm. PageSoutherlandPage of Houston, with 89 architects on staff in Texas, was second in this category, while WHR of Plano was third with 79 architects.

URS Corp. reported the largest number of engineers with 357. AECOM was next with 239, HDR was third, with 162.

Regionally, the Top Design firms data shows that of the major Texas markets, 14 firms operate out of Austin and 27 out of the Dallas/Fort Worth area. But Houston had the most--49 firms operate out of the Bayou City.

The complete Top Design rankings on the following pages are based on results of surveys completed by each firm. Rankings are also broken into specialty categories by percentage of work performed in various industry sectors.