Interior Design Giants

2020

If the Interior Design survey of the 100 Giants was an armada of tall ships, and we had to pick the perfect nautical cliché to describe their past year’s journey, it would have to be: steady as she goes. Business is good—has been for years now. But what phrase should we pick for the year ahead? Storm clouds on the horizon? Choppy waters? Well, before we look at the data points forecasting 2020’s course, let’s first parse this year’s tally.

Ranking

2019-Giants-Ranks

wdt_ID # Firm HQ Location Website Design Fees (in Millions) Value (in Millions) yrBusiness Sq. Ft (in Millions) ID Staff Previous Rank
1 1 Gensler San Francisco gensler.com 593 0 53 0 3,038 1
2 2 Perkins+Will Chicago perkinswill.com 214 6,900 83 60 458 2
3 3 AECOM Los Angeles aecom.com 189 72,261 28 72 428 3
4 4 Jacobs Dallas jacobs.com 175 0 71 29 685 5
5 5 HOK St. Louis, MO hok.com 170 5,567 63 63 342 4
6 6 IA Interior Architects San Francisco interiorarchitects.com 137 5,500 34 46 560 7
7 7 Hirsch Bedner Associates (HBA) Santa Monica, CA hba.com 132 791,506 53 75 1,614 6
8 8 Stantec Edmonton stantec.com 112 0 64 0 747 8
9 9 NELSON Minneapolis nelsononline.com 110 0 41 0 604 9
10 10 HKS Dallas hksinc.com 93 21 79 0 437 10
# Firm HQ Location Website Design Fees (in Millions) Value (in Millions) yrBusiness Sq. Ft (in Millions) ID Staff Previous Rank

Value = value of furnishings/fixtures and construction products installed

Sq.Ft. = square footage of projects installed

Methodology

The first installment of the two-part annual business survey of Interior Design Giants comprises the 100 largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2019. The 100 Rising Giants ranking will be published in July. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

  1. All types of interiors work, including commercial and residential.
  2. All aspects of a firm’s interior 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.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who 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. Ties are broken by dollar value of products installed, square footage of projects installed, and staff size respectively. Where applicable, all percentages are based on responding Giants, not their total number.