Hospitality Giants 2016 Research
Good hospitality never goes out of style. Which isn’t to say that time doesn’t march on. According to our survey, the big change, going forward, comes down to one word. Technology. It may have been easy to guess that computers would play an increasingly large role in design, but could anyone in the profession have foreseen how important things such as 3-D modeling, mobile apps, and even Wi-Fi would become?
“Depending on the project, we either embrace technology or ‘disguise’ it from the guest experience,” a CRA rep says. “In all cases, technology plays a primary part in our decision- making process.”
When we asked the hospitality Giants what challenges their businesses face in the near future, the answers included the usual bugbears: the outcome of the U.S. elections, the economy, global security, business consolidation, maintaining fee growth. Nevertheless, our Hospitality Giants remain optimistic about that last item: 68 of the 75 expect fees to grow. That’s one outcome that’s always welcome.
2016 Ranking | Firm | Headquarters | Hospitality Fees (millions) | Value (millions) | Sq. Ft. (in millions) | Design Staff | 2015 Ranking |
1 | HBA | Los Angeles | $124.029 | $7,441.00 | 70.90 | 1,468 | 1 |
2 | Gensler | San Francisco | $62.198 | NR | NR | 2,200 | 2 |
3 | Wilson Associates | Dallas | $34.222 | NR | NR | 284 | 3 |
4 | HOK | St. Louis | $25500 | $850.00 | 9.30 | 330 | 6 |
5 | Rockwell Group | New York | $24.700 | NR | NR | 202 | 4 |
6 | Bilkey Llinas Design | Palm Beach Gardens, FL | $23.898 | NR | NR | 92 | 5 |
7 | Leo A Daly | Omaha | $21.557 | Nr | NR | 134 | 7 |
8 | Dalton Steelman Arias & Anderson | Las Vegas | $19.950 | $280.00 | 0.90 | 34 | 8 |
9 | HKS | Dallas | $16.726 | NR | NR | 226 | 14 |
10 | Wimberly Interiors | New York | $14.612 | NR | NR | 90 | 11 |
11 | Pierre-Yves Rochon | Chicago | $14.590 | $275.00 | NR | 59 | 10 |
12 | Rebel Design+Group | Marina Del Rey, CA | $13.243 | $512.38 | 1.99 | 74 | 19 |
13 | Stonehill & Taylor Architects | New York | $13.071 | $300.00 | 3.00 | 94 | 17 |
14 | ForrestPerkins | Perkins Eastman | New York | $12.285 | NR | NR | 283 | 31 |
15 | FRCH Design Worldwide | Cincinnati | $11.978 | $3.00 | 2.00 | 47 | 29 |
16 | Daroff Design | Philadelphia | $11.900 | $400.00 | 3.00 | 45 | 15 |
17 | Yabu Pushelberg | Toronto | $11.454 | NR | NR | 119 | 13 |
18 | Baskervill | Richmond, VA | $10.614 | $349.43 | 8.57 | 29 | 20 |
19 | EDG Interior Architecture + Design | Novato, CA | $10.260 | $216.00 | 0.70 | 63 | 33 |
20 | DiLeonardo | Warwick, RI | $9.810 | NR | NR | 71 | 18 |
21 | AvroKO | New York | $8.978 | NR | 0.27 | 100 | 16 |
22 | HFS Concepts 4 | Long Beach, CA | $8.300 | $120.00 | NR | 50 | 22 |
23 | Chambers | Baltimore | $7.485 | $84.75 | NR | 34 | 28 |
24 | Aria Group Architects | Oak Park, IL | $7.209 | $110.00 | 1.20 | 94 | 27 |
25 | CallisonRTKL | Baltimore | $7.030 | NR | 1.75 | 202 | 37 |
26 | Design Duncan Miller Ullmann | Dallas | $6.787 | $68.00 | 6.50 | 63 | 26 |
27 | Looney & Associates | Dallas | $6.336 | $750.00 | 2.10 | 44 | 30 |
28 | Simeone Deary Design Group | Chicago | $6.204 | NR | NR | 45 | 23 |
29 | Jeffrey Beers International | New York | $5.880 | NR | NR | 36 | 21 |
30 | CBT Architects | Boston | $5.612 | NR | NR | 60 | 34 |
31 | KNA Design | Los Angeles | $5.200 | NR | NR | 27 | 24 |
32 | Rottet Studio | Houston | $5.123 | NR | NR | 40 | 32 |
33 | ICRAVE | New York | $4.970 | NR | 0.68 | 37 | 35 |
34 | Dawson Design Associates | Seattle | $4.200 | $225.00 | NR | 24 | 39 |
35 | TAL Studio | Las Vegas | $4.100 | $65.00 | 0.45 | 22 | 38 |
36 | JOI-Design | Hamburg, Germany | $4.100 | $50.00 | NR | 35 | 41 |
37 | CRA | Woodland Hills, CA | $3.825 | NR | NR | 18 | – |
38 | Resort Interiors | Myrtle Beach, SC | $3.825 | NR | NR | 7 | – |
39 | GreyMatters | Singapore | $3.761 | $200.00 | 1.50 | 32 | 68 |
40 | Design Directions International | Marietta, GA | $3.610 | $105.00 | 4.31 | 10 | 53 |
41 | Elkus Manfredi Architects | Boston | $3.458 | NR | NR | 61 | 60 |
42 | Parker-Torres Design | Sudbury, MA | $3.350 | NR | NR | 26 | 43 |
43 | STUDIOS Architecture | Washington | $3.140 | $80.00 | 0.15 | 275 | – |
44 | J/Brice Design International | Boston | $3.024 | $475.00 | 1.10 | 15 | – |
45 | BAMO | San Francisco | $3.000 | NR | NR | 41 | – |
46 | C2 Limited Design Associates | Fairfield, CT | $2.996 | $5.90 | NR | 14 | 46 |
47 | BraytonHughes Design Studios | San Francisco | $2.924 | NR | NR | 27 | 49 |
48 | Puccini Group | San Francisco | $2.900 | $4.50 | 0.21 | 25 | 47 |
49 | Hatch Design Group | Costa Mesa, CA | $2.895 | $105.40 | 0.30 | 22 | 48 |
50 | CLEO Design | Las Vegas | $2.813 | NR | NR | 14 | 69 |
51 | DLR Group | Overland Park, KS | $2.811 | $120.00 | NR | 60 | 59 |
52 | Areen | London | $2.799 | $22.00 | 0.90 | 15 | 45 |
53 | Kay Lang + Associates | Los Angeles | $2.720 | NR | NR | 19 | 50 |
54 | Bar Napkin Productions | Phoenix | $2.700 | $90.00 | 0.90 | 21 | 51 |
55 | Indidesign | Los Angeles | $2.500 | $500.00 | NR | 16 | 54 |
56 | J Banks Design Group | Hilton Head Island, SC | $2.483 | $5.10 | NR | 23 | 75 |
57 | Smallwood, Reynolds, Stewart, Stewart & Associates | Atlanta | $2.387 | NR | NR | 39 | 67 |
58 | Rule Joy Trammell + Rubio | Atlanta | $2.382 | $2.63 | 1.48 | 20 | – |
59 | K2M Design | Cleveland | $2.200 | $50.00 | 5.00 | 12 | 72 |
60 | SOSH Architects | Atlantic City | $2.160 | $45.50 | 0.48 | 16 | 57 |
61 | RDH Interests | Frisco, TX | $2.083 | NR | NR | 8 | – |
62 | RD Jones & Associates | Baltimore | $1.990 | NR | NR | 35 | 58 |
63 | C+TC Design Studio | Atlanta | $1.892 | NR | NR | 15 | – |
64 | Clear on Black | El Segundo, CA | $1.881 | NR | NR | 12 | – |
65 | Lawrence Group | St. Louis | $1.877 | $56.00 | 0.38 | 59 | 73 |
66 | DAS Architects | Philadelphia | $1.837 | $61.00 | 0.50 | 18 | 55 |
67 | Judd Brown Design | Pawtucket, RI | $1.814 | $19.50 | 0.17 | 23 | – |
68 | Thomas Hamilton & Associates | Richmond, VA | $1.736 | $42.61 | NR | 11 | 66 |
69 | Group One Partners | Boston | $1.733 | $34.00 | NR | 12 | – |
70 | DesignOne Studio | Marietta, GA | $1.721 | $409.88 | 3.05 | 16 | 74 |
71 | HapstakDemetriou+ | Washington | $1.547 | $12.00 | 0.23 | 28 | 70 |
72 | Rowland+Broughton | Aspen, CO | $1.493 | $185.62 | 0.83 | 33 | 71 |
73 | HVS Design | Rockville, MD | $1.428 | $34.00 | 2.70 | 18 | – |
74 | Rodrigo Vargas Design | Los Angeles | $1.400 | $80.00 | NR | 9 | – |
75 | Seifert Murphy | Dallas | $1.350 | NR | NR | 9 | – |
Methodology
The annual business survey of Interior Design hospitality Giants ranks the largest design firms by hospitality design fees for the 12-month period from July 2015 through June 2016. Hospitality design fees include those attributed to:
1. All hospitality interiors work.
2. All aspects of a firm’s hospitality design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.
3. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are full-time staff equivalent. Hospitality design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors that are not considered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and retain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Additionally, where applicable, all percentages are based on responding hospitality Giants, not their total number. The data was compiled and analyzed by the Interior Design market research staff, led by Wing Leung, research director.
Related Links:
Hospitality Giants 2016 Research: Fees