Building Design & Construction
Reed Business Information

FREE Subscriptions:	Quick Links:
:: Print Edition :: Digital Edition :: eNewsletters	:: Reader Service :: Webcasts :: White Papers :: Award Programs :: Store

Site Search

Talk Back

There are no comments posted for this article.

Post a comment

RSS Feed

Add BD&C Headlines to your
RSS Reader

Foreign billings shake up giants

Staff

July 1, 2001

Building Design and Construction

As the 21^st century gathered steam, the editors of Building Design & Construction decided it was time to reflect the increasingly global nature of building design, construction and ownership.and for the first time consider billings from international work in the statistics. That — and a good year — increased the volume of billings in the year 2000 for commercial, institutional and industrial (CII) building work by more than 25 percent from 1999, according to the results of the 2001 Design/Construct 300 survey of the giants in the industry.

By including foreign billings in this year's survey, a number of firms heavy in international work have leaped ahead in the rankings. Especially benefiting were architectural firms. Fifty-six percent of the top 50 architectural firms said they performed some international work during 2000, with growth in Europe cited. Seventy-two percent of the top 50 engineer/architects reported foreign work, as did about half of the engineering and general contracting firms.

As a result of including foreign billings and construction put-in-place abroad in this year's ranking, architecture firms and construction managers may appear much bigger. Architectural firms now report total billings that are 30.5 percent higher than they were in 1999; CMs show 28.1 percent higher billings. General contractors are also busy overseas, so their CII construction values jumped by more than a quarter.

The fundamentals, however, are still the same, and the ranking reflects what was a good year overall for U.S.-based design and construction firms. Isolated softening in certain segments — design/build and reconstruction, for example — was more than made up for by a vibrant market for new construction.

Contractors with top volumes from design/build (millions of dollars)

Opus Group	$973.50
DPR Construction Inc.	686.00
Kajima Construction Services	565.00
Jacobs Engineering Group Inc.	498.42
Carlson Implementation Assoc.	471.30
J.A. Jones Inc.	465.03
The Turner Corp.	460.64
Hensel Phelps Construction Co.	457.56
Clayco Construction Co.	430.00
Ryan Companies U.S. Inc.	369.87
The Stellar Group	348.44
The Haskell Co.	347.13
The Clark Construction Group Inc.	342.49
James N. Gray Co.	328.58
McClier	328.00
HBE Corp.	327.00
H and M Co.	308.46
BE&K Inc.	280.50
Marnell Corrao Associates	266.15
Swinerton Inc.	250.00
TOTAL	$8,504.07

Method of the 2001 Design/Construct 300 Survey

BD&C's Design/Construct 300 consists of U.S. firms that designed and/or constructed the largest volumes of commercial, institutional and industrial (CII) buildings during 2000. These 300 firms are divided into seven categories: Architects (50 members), Architect/Engineers (60), Engineer/Architects (50), Engineers (40), Construction Managers (10), Contractors (70) and Specialty Contractors (20).

Design firms are ranked on the basis of billings for design and planning performed by their own employees during 2000 or their most recent fiscal year. Contractors are ranked on the dollar value of the construction which they put in place, and for which they were contractually responsible, during 2000. Construction managers are ranked on the dollar value of the construction that they managed during 2000. In the case of building projects lasting longer than one year, the firms were asked to report only that portion constructed or billed during the designated 12-month period. Firms may appear in more than one category if their volume in more than one discipline was great enough to qualify them.

To compile the data presented in the survey, BD&C mails a questionnaire each year to approximately 1,200 firms. In cases where BD&C was unable to obtain a response to the questionnaire, CII revenues may have been estimated. Any such estimates are noted in the individual report given for each firm in the survey.

Please note that any revenues unrelated to CII buildings have been excluded from the figures used for ranking purposes. Thus every effort has been made to subtract revenues derived from roads, dams, bridges, utility plants, water- and waste treatment plants, refineries and single-family housing. Firms were also asked to exclude any pass-through billings for work done by consultants.

The sample below highlights the information provided in each firm's report.