University Report

Higher ed sector still strong, but double-digit growth may end

Higher education construction spending is currently 18% higher than a year ago, but the year-to-year gain will slide down to near 10% for most of 2008-09. Public higher education spending increased 13% during the last year, while private spending jumped 29%, mostly for classrooms and residence halls.

The value of construction starts has declined from the peak level last summer with no pickup expected by the end of 2009. Total education construction starts increased 8% in 2006 and 5% in 2007, but will drop 20% this year and stay at the 2008 level through 2009. State budget reserves for funding university construction weakened from excellent to average earlier this year and will slip to sub-par in 2009. This is a much milder drop in funding availability than the dip that occurred in 2002-03. Similarly, the investment earnings of private universities have weakened substantially in the slow economy. The era of huge gains in hedge funds has passed.

Top 20 university design firms
(2007 billings in $ millions)

	Company	Billings
Source: 2008 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1.	AECOM Technology Corp.	76.17
2.	Arup	66.00
3.	HOK	64.02
4.	Cannon Design	43.37
5.	Jacobs Engineering Group	39.35
6.	Burt Hill	34.45
7.	Perkins+Will	30.60
8.	STV Group	30.09
9.	RMJM	29.70
10.	Einhorn Yaffee Prescott	29.28
11.	Stantec	29.06
12.	Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Architects	26.85
13.	Rosser International	24.75
14.	URS Corp.	24.00
15.	Sasaki Associates	22.95
16.	CUH2A	21.61
17.	HDR Architecture	21.20
18.	Vanderweil Engineers	20.85
19.	Affiliated Engineers	19.48
20.	SmithGroup	18.70

Top 20 university contractors
(2007 construction value put in place in $ millions)

	Company	Value put in place
Source: 2008 Giants 300 survey Note: This ranking is based on firms that made the Giants 300 list.
1.	Turner Corp., The	1,034.02
2.	Skanska USA Building	600.00
3.	Structure Tone	500.14
4.	Gilbane Building Co.	396.66
5.	Hunt Construction Group	360.00
6.	Flintco Cos., The	335.36
7.	M. A. Mortenson	298.94
8.	McCarthy Holdings	268.43
9.	JE Dunn Construction Group	263.52
10.	Hensel Phelps Construction	251.93
11.	PCL Construction Enterprises	218.61
12.	Swinerton	200.20
13.	Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The	194.61
14.	Clark Group	189.85
15.	Paric Corp.	175.10
16.	Shawmut Design and Construction	170.12
17.	C.W. Driver	150.37
18.	Choate Construction	147.78
19.	Austin Commercial	141.35
20.	Boldt Co., The	134.82

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