Northwest Designers, Contractors Stay in Growth Mode

The Seattle market continues its hot streak. In the South Lake Union area, designer Gensler and contractor Mortenson assemble the 264 prefabricated modular guest rooms to create the seven-story CitizenM hotel.

IMAGE COURTESY GENSLER

By all accounts, 2018 was a great year for the Northwest’s contractors, engineers and architectural firms, with revenue reported to ENR Northwest’s annual Top Contractors and Top Design Firms rankings showing significant increases for both types of firms.

Design firms collectively reported $1.39 billion in 2018 revenue from projects located in Alaska, Oregon and Washington, a 44.6% jump compared with last year.

Contractors reported a similarly strong bump in revenue to ENR Northwest, with a collective $8.8 billion in 2018 revenue, for a 38.4% year-over-year gain.

Infrastructure-related investments are continuing to provide business opportunities for both engineering firms and contractors, says Al Barkouli, chairman and CEO of David Evans Enterprises.

“Public investment decisions made in the past couple of years continue to fuel the demand for infrastructure consulting services,” he says, adding that he expects this to be the case “for the next few years.”

Architectural services appear to be in demand for the foreseeable future, says Vladimir Pajkic, partner at ZGF Architects in Portland, Ore.

“Medium- to long-term fundamentals in the Northwest are strong,” Pajkic says. “This is a very desirable region for both people and businesses, so it seems logical to expect future growth.”

Contractors are bullish, too.

“The construction industry in the Northwest is healthy and busy for nearly all companies in the procurement chain,” says Aaron Wiehe, PCL Construction vice president and district manager in Seattle.

For more data on the Northwest construction market, read on to review ENR Northwest’s annual Top Design Firms and Top Contractors rankings.

Scott Judy is Deputy Editor for Regions, and editor of ENR Southeast, one of Engineering News-Record's 10 Regional publications. His roughly 27 years as a construction journalist began with an 11-year stint covering Midwest construction projects. In 2000, Judy helped launch the publication now known as ENR Southeast. He often delves into controversial aspects of the construction industry such as bankruptcies and fatal accidents, and wishes he would never have to cover another accident but suspects that he might.