Office Report: Fitouts, renovations keep sector moving

Is there life after death? Judging by the commercial office sector, maybe there is. After several years in an advanced stage of morbidity, propped up largely by tenant fitouts and renovations, the office sector may be starting to show signs of life.

The ULI Center for Capital Markets and Real Estate recently stated (based on data from CBRE) that the sector is expected to show “steady and substantial three-year improvements,” with vacancy rates declining from 15.4% this year, to 14.4% in 2013 and 12.3% by year-end 2014.

Rental rates should be up 3.7% in ’13, says the ULI. +

TOP 25 OFFICE SECTOR ARCHITECTURE FIRMS

Rank	Company	2011 Office Revenue ($)
1	Gensler	432,000,000
2	HOK	144,865,720
3	Perkins+Will	103,737,646
4	HDR Architecture	40,800,000
5	Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates	40,030,000
6	Hammel, Green and Abrahamson	39,600,000
7	NBBJ	38,830,000
8	RTKL Associates	38,055,565
9	Nelson	36,223,716
10	SmithGroupJJR	30,700,000
11	Heery International	29,004,000
12	PageSoutherlandPage	28,130,000
13	HLW International	26,750,000
14	HNTB Architecture	25,231,479
15	Cannon Design	23,000,000
16	IBI Group	22,391,853
17	EYP Architecture & Engineering	20,000,000
18	Little	19,739,500
19	LEO A DALY	16,832,770
20	Ware Malcomb	16,762,000
21	DLR Group	14,000,000
22	ZGF Architects	13,227,504
23	RSP Architects	13,151,000
24	HKS	12,227,874
25	Corgan Associates	12,109,000

TOP 25 OFFICE SECTOR ENGINEERING FIRMS

Rank	Company	2011 Office Revenue ($)
1	AECOM Technology Corp.	1,291,000,000
2	Jacobs	261,100,000
3	Parsons Brinckerhoff	127,900,000
4	Science Applications International Corp.	116,240,000
5	URS Corp.	58,000,000
6	Burns & McDonnell	43,493,660
7	Michael Baker Jr., Inc.	42,890,000
8	Stantec	42,300,000
9	Dewberry	41,215,530
10	Thornton Tomasetti	34,780,000
11	WSP USA	34,500,000
12	ESD/Environmental Systems Design	22,900,000
13	Arup	19,146,849
14	Syska Hennessy Group	18,504,074
15	AKF Group	15,500,000
16	Sebesta Blomberg	14,590,000
17	GHT Limited	13,891,000
18	Clark Nexsen	13,029,482
19	Glumac	11,736,618
20	KPFF Consulting Engineers	10,000,000
21	R.G. Vanderweil Engineers	9,354,500
22	Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates	8,967,000
23	RDK Engineers	8,835,000
24	H&A Architects & Engineers	7,757,000
25	Interface Engineering	7,290,488

TOP 25 OFFICE SECTOR CONSTRUCTION FIRMS

Rank	Company	2011 Office Revenue ($)
1	Turner Corporation, The	1,489,944,482
2	Clark Group	1,148,992,603
3	Structure Tone	1,004,320,000
4	Balfour Beatty US	825,948,471
5	Hensel Phelps Construction	619,660,000
6	Gilbane Building Co.	617,058,000
7	PCL Construction Enterprises	594,444,509
8	BL Harbert International	589,000,000
9	James G. Davis Construction Corp.	450,000,000
10	Clayco	426,000,000
11	Suffolk Construction	388,644,645
12	Whiting-Turner Contracting Co., The	386,520,693
13	Holder Construction	327,000,000
14	Tutor Perini Corp.	312,940,000
15	Weitz Company, The	302,418,397
16	Ryan Companies US	288,463,756
17	DPR Construction	261,922,722
18	Jacobs	261,100,000
19	Webcor Builders	229,121,806
20	Mortenson	221,980,000
21	Walsh Group, The	211,738,006
22	JE Dunn Construction	203,050,158
23	Pepper Construction Group	197,357,000
24	Jones Lang LaSalle	180,000,000
25	Lend Lease	173,228,092

Across the country, multifamily rents have skyrocketed. Year-over-year rents are up by double digits in nine of the top 30 markets, while national YoY rent growth is up 6.3%. Emerging from the pandemic, a perfect storm of migration, enhanced government stimulus and a hot housing market, among other factors, has enabled this extremely strong growth.

AEC firm actions in light of Covid opening

AEC Business Innovation | Jul 11, 2021

Staffing, office changes at SCB, SmithGroup, RKTB, Ryan Cos., Jacobsen, Boldt, and Adolfson & Peterson

AEC firms take strategic action as construction picks up steam with Covid openings.

STEM High School Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) HorizonTV, LPA Architects

K-12 Schools | Jul 9, 2021

LPA Architects' STEM high school post-occupancy evaluation

LPA Architects conducted a post-occupancy evaluation, or POE, of the eSTEM Academy, a new high school specializing in health/medical and design/engineering Career Technical Education, in Eastvale, Calif. The POE helped LPA, the Riverside County Office of Education, and the Corona-Norco Unified School District gain a better understanding of which design innovations—such as movable walls, flex furniture, collaborative spaces, indoor-outdoor activity areas, and a student union—enhanced the education program, and how well students and teachers used these innovations.

Interior designer Creative License International fashioned this community room for P83, a 250-unit rental community in Peoria, Ariz. 2021 Multifamily Amenities study

Multifamily Housing | Jul 7, 2021

Make sure to get your multifamily amenities mix right

One of the hardest decisions multifamily developers and their design teams have to make is what mix of amenities they’re going to put into each project. A lot of squiggly factors go into that decision: the type of community, the geographic market, local recreation preferences, climate/weather conditions, physical parameters, and of course the budget. The permutations are mind-boggling.

Industrial Facilities | Jul 2, 2021

A new approach to cold storage buildings

Cameron Trefry and Kate Lyle of Ware Malcomb talk about their firm's cold storage building prototype that is serving a market that is rapidly expanding across the supply chain.