Earlier today, I received an email from Joanna Del Moral, vice president and director of business development with architectural firm VOA Associates of Orlando. Ms. Del Moral had recently read my blog previewing the Southeast's Top Design Firms, which was a sneak peek of our annual ranking which publishes in October. Our Top Design Firms ranking is just that--a ranking of all types of design firms, with both architects and engineers combined into a single, main ranking. This is consistent with the manner that our (big) sister publication, Engineering News-Record, publishes its annual ranking, such as the Top 500 Design Firms.

However, Del Moral rightly noted that this combination of different disciplines into a single list can have its limiting effects. For instance, Del Moral wrote: "An A/E has the potential to double the income because of solo engineering projects they can pursue. Therefore, an architect could not really ever be on a level rating with that type of firm for billings."

She certainly has a point. The good news is that in addition to our main ranking, we are publishing a plethora of other breakout rankings in the same upcoming October issue. From project types to design disciplines, we'll have approximately 20 or so available for your online reading soon.

I've been posting preview peeks of some of these lately--such as for Florida and Georgia--but I haven't quite gotten around to an architects-only ranking yet. So, let's do it--my first blog post by audience request. (Also, while we will have numerous breakout rankings, I should note that we were somewhat limited by space in terms of the number of firms included in the print versions of some of these subcategory listings. For example, the print publication will list the top 20 architects in the Southeast. Here, we'll go ahead and increase that by 50% and list the top 30.)

So, Joanna, this post's for you--and all 29 other firms included below. Figures below represent architectural billings only, from calendar year 2008. (Also, interior design billings are not included within these amounts.) All dollar figures are in millions.

1.  AECOM Technology Corp.              81.11
2.  Heery International                         61.92
3.  Perkins+Will                                  59.41
4.  HKS Architects                              54.70
5.  Gresham, Smith and Partners         52.63
6.  PBS&J                                          50.66
7.  Little                                             37.15
8.  Reynolds, Smith and Hills               36.68
9.  BRPH Architects-Engineers            32.90
10. Cooper Carry                                30.40
11. HOK                                            25.92
12. HuntonBrady Architects                 24.10
13. Harvard Jolly                                 23.83
14. Lord, Aeck & Sargent                    23.04
15. Zyscovich Architects                     20.00
16. SchenkelShultz                            19.21
17. Niles Bolton Associates                19.05
18. McMillan Smith & Partners            18.98
19. TRO Jung|Brannen                        17.16
20. Perkins Eastman                          15.25
21. Designs by Zorian Int'l                   15.00
22. tvsdesign                                     14.49
23. VOA Associates                           13.34
24. Wakefield Beasley & Assoc.         12.90
25. Moseley Architects                       12.44
26. SB Architects                               11.71
27. Stevens & Wilkinson                     11.26
28. PGAL                                           11.21
29. Lawson Group Architects               10.50
30. STH Architectural Group                 10.02

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