The overall decline in the public sector took a toll on many of the New York region's design firms last year, some of which were still trying to dig their way out of the recession. The greatest demand for design services in the sector has been and is expected to continue to be fueled by numerous multi-year transportation projects and Superstorm Sandy-related work, executives say. On the private side, signs of life have returned, especially in the residential, commercial and higher education markets, they add.

The design sector had hoped that 2013 would "place it further ahead in the direction of the recovery," says Mark Regulinski, treasurer of the New York chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and managing director of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill, New York City. But "hesitancy and uncertainty" has continued, he says.

The protracted softening in demand "is a bit of a surprise given the overall strength of the market the last year and a half," said Kermit Baker, AIA chief economist, in a statement last month on the drop in the March score of AIA's Architectural Buildings Index. "Hopefully some of this can be attributed to severe weather conditions over this past winter. We will have a better sense if there is a reason for more serious concern over the next couple of months."

Regulinski says there is also "a general paralysis at the federal and state levels across the country and nothing hits businesses harder than that uncertainty." He adds that not knowing "makes everyone touch that accelerator more lightly."

That sentiment is partially reflected in the top 100 design firms that participated in ENR New York's survey this year. Nearly half of those that responded reported a year-over-year drop in regional revenue.

但是，STV Inc.首席执行官兼总裁Milo Riverso（第7名，区域收入下降了35％，至1.15亿美元），预计有一些重大合同的胜利。最近，他的公司被选为布鲁克林Kosciuszko桥的5.5亿美元替代品的居民工程检查服务。STV还参与了几项与沙质相关的弹性项目，包括纽约州史坦顿岛的South Beach Psychiatric Cen18luck官网ter of 47,000平方英尺的纽约州通用服务办公室以及正在进行的风暴 -公用事业公司Con Edison的硬化工作。

里弗索说：“桑迪的努力将在接下来的两到三年中补充该行业。”他补充说，在纽约市拥有100年历史的STV因公共部门的衰落而受到打击，并看到了去年一些大型项目的完成，包括大道：新世界学校。18luck官网

上升到

纽约州巴比伦市格林曼·佩德森公18luck官网司（Greenman-Pedersen Inc.增加至1.22亿美元。

卡特将上升归因于该公司参与多个运输的大型投资。18luck官网其中包括耗资200亿美元的新泽西收费公路扩大项目，耗资12.9亿美元的Bayonne桥以及在纽约市的其他几个桥梁过境点上工作，例如Whitestone，Verrazano-Narrows和Brooklyn Bridges。

The firm's other projects include a $450-million program for the complete reconstruction of interconnected approach roadways and bicycle/pedestrian paths on a 7.5-mile stretch of the Belt Parkway—a major thoroughfare that stretches between Brooklyn and Queens and serves up to 150,000 cars per day. Greenman-Pedersen is providing program management and resident engineering and inspection services for seven bridges along the parkway.

卡特说：“桥梁行业现在非常强大。”“谨慎地说，公共部门正在恢复，纽约市的所有桥梁项目都有助于倾斜这一规模。”18luck官网

In the private sector, the gradual comeback that began last year continues to gain momentum. "The private sector is more than just gradually coming back—it's roaring back," says Bradford Perkins, chairman and CEO of Perkins Eastman, New York City. Despite dropping three spots in the ranking to No. 16, the firm saw its revenue grow by 13% to nearly $80 million.

珀金斯说：“去年对我们来说是创纪录的一年。”“我们将经济衰退留在后视镜中。今年会更好。”

The increase was helped by several factors, he says, including the steadiness in private sector work—especially for housing, health care and commercial development—as well as foreign investment and the "big push to get legacy projects that were part of the Bloomberg administration approved before he left office."

The industry also has opportunities in the health care market as many hospitals have significant building programs under way, Perkins says.

Perkins Eastman will provide programming, architecture and interior design services on the $1-billion-plus Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center project in which the hospital teamed with the City University of New York's Hunter College School of Nursing to develop a 760,000-sq-ft ambulatory care center at 74th Street in Manhattan. The project is scheduled to begin before summer and is slated for completion by 2018.

While ambulatory care facilities are on the rise, new construction in the overall health care sector seems "paralyzed," says AIANY's Regulinski. "We still don't know how the Affordable Care Act is going to affect the way health care is being delivered," he says. "Companies are hesitant to build new health facilities."

替代手段

Among industry trends, alternative delivery methods such as public-private partnerships (P3), which were "spawned by the fiscal constraints the industry has been in for the past few years," gained a lot of momentum in a short amount of time, Carter says.

These methods "allow projects to get built more quickly and create opportunities to collaborate," she says. "It's a trend that continues to grow, but it's not a silver bullet. There will still be a lot of design-bid-build projects out there because the other methods are not always applicable to certain projects," she adds.

Use of these approaches was dampened by Superstorm Sandy work, executives say. "If Sandy never happened, you'd see a bigger discussion on P3 and alternate delivery, but federal dollars have paused that conversation," says Peter Glus, director of business development at ARCADIS U.S., New York City, which has retained the No. 2 spot in the ranking for the last two years. Instead, he says, an even bigger current trend is the incorporation of resiliency approaches into urban planning.

格鲁斯说，纽约和新泽西州港口管理局以及大都市运输管理局等地区机构以前可能没有用于基础设施项目的资金。18luck官网“现在重要的是要弄清楚如何最大化联邦资金并从这些美元中获得高度协同价值。这就是基础设施部门的客户正在谈论的。”

阿卡迪斯（Arcadis）的主要18luck官网项目包括纽约州拿骚县（Nassau County）的3570万美元湾公园污水处理厂，桑迪（Enr New York 2/24-3/3p。22p。22）受到了严重打击。新利luck该公司与Hazen和Sawyer合资领导的Design-Bid-Build项目包括建造三个电气单位变电站，并定于2016年3月完成。

Hiring Up

一些高管说，人员配备恢复了预先的水平，公司正在稳步雇用。

Perkins Eastman has increased staff by 30% since 2012, but that hasn't been without difficulty, Perkins says. Most of the new hires have been added to the firm's New York City office, but "there is a real shortage of staff in our Connecticut [and outside offices]," he says. "It's been hard to find experienced people in those areas." Finding and retaining talent has been and continues to be a challenge. "A lot of people left the industry and didn't return," Riverso points out. "It's important to bring in younger people and train them."

Going forward, executives say they are cautiously optimistic that the economy will improve and keep both the private and public sector healthy.

他们说，有助于为此做出贡献，尤其是在公共部门的原因是，华盛顿的推动者要通过另一项运输法案。卡特说，这将有助于“较小的，良好的修复项目获得资金，而代理机构依靠这些资金”。18luck官网

高管们说，一旦沙质救济资金枯竭，公司还需要考虑下一步将是什么。

里弗索说：“随着沙质货币消散，我们希望为公共部门提供税收计划。”

阿卡迪斯（Arcadis）的Glus同意，强调该行业需要“开始思考超出联邦资金”。