Demand for data centers is “exploding,” says Raj Gupta, PE, LEED AP, CEO of Environmental Systems Design and emeritus member of BD+C’s Editorial Board. According to Gartner Inc., in 2010, 2% of data centers contained 52% of total data center floor space and accounted for 63% of data center hardware spending.
In 2015, 2% of data centers will contain 60% of data center floor space and account for 71% of data center hardware spending.
“Traditional in-house enterprise data centers are under attack,” says Jon Hardcastle, Gartner’s research director. Virtualization technologies are helping companies to utilize their infrastructure more effectively, and data centers are getting more efficient. The move to consolidated third-party data centers is trimming the total number of midsize facilities, while large data centers are benefitting from the rise of cloud computing. +
TOP 25 DATA CENTER SECTOR ARCHITECTURE FIRMS
| Rank | Company | 2011 Data Center Revenue ($) |
| 1 | Corgan Associates | 22,854,000 |
| 2 | Gensler | 20,100,000 |
| 3 | HDR Architecture | 16,000,000 |
| 4 | LEO A DALY | 14,753,871 |
| 5 | PageSoutherlandPage | 12,890,000 |
| 6 | Integrated Design Group | 11,436,000 |
| 7 | Reynolds, Smith and Hills | 4,200,000 |
| 8 | RTKL Associates | 3,840,295 |
| 9 | CTA Architects Engineers | 3,787,800 |
| 10 | EwingCole | 3,000,000 |
| 11 | SMMA|Symmes Maini & McKee Associates | 2,123,426 |
| 12 | HLW International | 1,900,000 |
| 13 | Fentress Architects | 1,456,103 |
| 14 | Kirksey Architecture | 1,379,269 |
| 15 | PGAL | 1,096,000 |
| 16 | Heery International | 808,000 |
| 17 | Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber | 600,000 |
| 18 | Harley Ellis Devereaux | 600,000 |
| 19 | IBI Group | 563,474 |
| 20 | H+L Architecture | 537,059 |
| 21 | Ware Malcomb | 515,000 |
| 22 | Solomon Cordwell Buenz | 500,000 |
| 23 | HOK | 426,798 |
| 24 | Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio | 350,000 |
| 25 | Gresham, Smith and Partners | 234,347 |
TOP 25 DATA CENTER SECTOR ENGINEERING FIRMS
| Rank | Company | 2011 Data Center Revenue ($) |
| 1 | Fluor Corp. | 212,484,600 |
| 2 | Jacobs | 119,930,000 |
| 3 | Syska Hennessy Group | 43,577,806 |
| 4 | URS Corp. | 34,475,000 |
| 5 | Merrick & Co. | 31,500,000 |
| 6 | AKF Group | 10,500,000 |
| 7 | Atkins North America | 10,035,923 |
| 8 | Parsons Brinckerhoff | 7,400,000 |
| 9 | Eaton Energy Solutions | 6,169,598 |
| 10 | KPFF Consulting Engineers | 5,000,000 |
| 11 | H.F. Lenz Co. | 4,741,000 |
| 12 | Burns & McDonnell | 4,500,000 |
| 13 | Stantec | 4,230,000 |
| 14 | Glumac | 4,196,563 |
| 15 | Science Applications International Corp. | 3,950,000 |
| 16 | Zak Companies | 3,043,228 |
| 17 | Michael Baker Jr., Inc | 2,970,000 |
| 18 | R.G. Vanderweil Engineers | 2,830,900 |
| 19 | RMF Engineering | 2,500,000 |
| 20 | ESD|Environmental Systems Design | 2,450,000 |
| 21 | H&A Architects & Engineers | 2,300,000 |
| 22 | RDK Engineers | 2,245,000 |
| 23 | Guernsey | 2,041,552 |
| 24 | Middough | 1,750,000 |
| 25 | M+W U.S. | 1,654,867 |
TOP 25 DATA CENTER SECTOR CONSTRUCTION FIRMS
| Rank | Company | 2011 Data Center Revenue ($) |
| 1 | Holder Construction | 1,293,000,000 |
| 2 | DPR Construction | 666,292,020 |
| 3 | Turner Corporation, The | 434,435,518 |
| 4 | Whiting-Turner Contracting, The | 393,539,085 |
| 5 | Skanska USA | 369,889,632 |
| 6 | Mortenson Construction | 304,900,000 |
| 7 | Balfour Beatty US | 277,879,080 |
| 8 | Structure Tone | 259,250,000 |
| 9 | Jacobs | 119,930,000 |
| 10 | Gilbane Building | 104,166,000 |
| 11 | JE Dunn Construction | 89,426,706 |
| 12 | Weitz Co., The | 71,442,860 |
| 13 | James G. Davis Construction | 60,000,000 |
| 14 | Hensel Phelps Construction | 50,360,000 |
| 15 | Messer Construction | 49,404,845 |
| 16 | Hoffman Corp. | 46,541,098 |
| 17 | Manhattan Construction Group | 44,196,000 |
| 18 | Brasfield & Gorrie | 34,612,782 |
| 19 | URS Corp. | 34,475,000 |
| 20 | Sundt Construction | 28,801,944 |
| 21 | Kitchell | 24,310,000 |
| 22 | Ryan Companies US | 23,664,942 |
| 23 | Harkins Builders | 21,000,000 |
| 24 | McShane Companies, The | 20,000,000 |
| 25 | Yates Companies., The | 20,000,000 |
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
Architecture Billings Index: inquiries for new projects remain extremely high
The new projects inquiry index was 61.7, down slightly from a nearly three-year high mark of 62.3 in September, according to the Architecture Billings Index (ABI). However, the ABI dropped nearly two points in October; the October ABI score was 48.7, down from a reading of 50.4 the previous month. The ABI reflects the approximate nine to 12 month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 16, 2010
Green building market grows 50% in two years; Green Outlook 2011 report
The U.S. green building market is up 50% from 2008 to 2010—from $42 billion to $55 billion-$71 billion, according to McGraw-Hill Construction's Green Outlook 2011: Green Trends Driving Growth report. Today, a third of all new nonresidential construction is green; in five years, nonresidential green building activity is expected to triple, representing $120 billion to $145 billion in new construction.
| Nov 16, 2010
Calculating office building performance? Yep, there’s an app for that
123 Zero build is a free tool for calculating the performance of a market-ready carbon-neutral office building design. The app estimates the discounted payback for constructing a zero emissions office building in any U.S. location, including the investment needed for photovoltaics to offset annual carbon emissions, payback calculations, estimated first costs for a highly energy efficient building, photovoltaic costs, discount rates, and user-specified fuel escalation rates.
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 16, 2010
Just for fun: Words that architects use
If you regularly use such words as juxtaposition, folly, truncated, and articulation, you may be an architect. Architects tend to use words rarely uttered during normal conversations. In fact, 62% of all the words that come out of an architects mouth could be replaced by a simpler and more widely known word, according to this “report.” Review this list of designer words, and once you manage to work them into daily conversation, you’re on your way to becoming a bonafide architect.
| Nov 16, 2010
NFRC approves technical procedures for attachment product ratings
The NFRC Board of Directors has approved technical procedures for the development of U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and visible transmittance (VT) ratings for co-planar interior and exterior attachment products. The new procedures, approved by unanimous voice vote last week at NFRC’s Fall Membership Meeting in San Francisco, will add co-planar attachments such as blinds and shades to the group’s existing portfolio of windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, and window film.
