2019 revenue topped $6 billion for the Midwest’s largest design firms, but the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have a big impact on revenue going forward.
ENR Midwest’s list of Top Design Firms ranks 105 companies based on revenue across the 11-state region, and they once again demonstrate a remarkable breadth of specialties, including transportation, water supply, manufacturing, petroleum, telecommunications and health care.
排名前10的公司都保持与上一年相同的排名，而AECOM，Burns＆McDonnell和HDR占据了前三名。这家前105家公司在2019财年获得了创纪录的61.4亿美元，比上一年的57.8亿美元增长。与2018年一样，AECOM和Burns＆McDonnell都是唯一超过5亿美元收入标记的公司。
“Things have obviously changed in the last weeks, but last year was great for the city in terms of all these projects,” says Jon Lewis, co-manager of Northbrook, Ill.-based Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates’ (WJE) Chicago office.
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过去几个月的事件可能会影响每个行业的企业。尽管大多数州都将建筑列为冠状病毒爆发期间的重要业务，但在每个中西部州，全职订单都占上风。这些订单的波浪直到现在才开始在整个设计公司行业中才开始感受到，并且可能已经知道对行业收入的全部影响可能需要数月的时间。
总部位于明尼苏达州圣保罗的Kimley-Horn（2019年收入第10名）副总裁Julie Beauvais表示，该公司阶段工作，以便在不到两周的时间内将4,500名员工送回家远程工作。波瓦斯说：“我一直认为我们很幸运能够从事我们的行业，而不是受到严重影响的行业。”
Kimley-Horn made it to the ranks of the top 10 thanks to its focus on transportation. Since opening in the Twin Cities in 2002, the firm has been a mainstay in the metro area’s light rail transit system, working on such massive projects as the 11-mile Green Line, the 14.5-mile Green Line extension and the Blue Line extension. The Blue Line extension runs 14 miles from Minneapolis to Brooklyn Park, home of Target Corp.’s north campus and was 90% complete until recently being put on pause.
“We like to say we’re like a boutique firm with resources,” says Mark Bishop, senior vice president at Kimley-Horn. Bishop credited the firm’s success in the transportation area as being built on long-term relationships with cities that are expanding their transit systems. In the case of the recent Blue Line extension, he says, “it was a massive effort with us having a strong local team here in Minneapolis.”
尽管金利·霍恩（Kimley-Horn）在运输方面取得了成功，但WJE在改变现有结构方面取得了成功。该公司（列表中的第41号）在去年进行了大规模的设计立面项目，其中包括芝加哥市中心的旧邮局和老库克县医院。18luck官网
WJE与总部位于芝加哥的设计建筑师Skidmore，Owings＆Merrill和总承包商Walsh合作。该建筑最初是在1914年完成的，但是随着伊利诺伊州医疗区在整个1990年代的增长，最终在2002年被空置并关闭。2018年，公民健康发展小组启动了该计划，将350,000平方英尺的前医院重新建立为一栋包含零售，办公室和酒店空间的多功能建筑。WJE芝加哥联合经理伊丽莎白·卡辛（Elizabeth Cassin）表示，该公司制定了一种新的Terra-Cotta保护策略，恢复了原始的Beaux-Arts风格砌体和木框窗户。
“It took about 4,000 pieces (of the terra cotta) as just part of getting it back to its original glory,” Cassin says. “It means so much to the city to bring it back.”
WJE’s challenge, as with many of its facade restoration and structural investigations, was fitting a square peg in a round hole.
“It’s inherently harder to make your design vision work within the confines of an existing building,” Lewis says. He pointed specifically to WJE’s work on the Old Post Office. “You have something designed for tons and tons of mail instead of [being] multifunctional. There are no existing drawings, so you’re trying to create something that’s not there. It’s one of the things that makes our industry so compelling.”
The post office building was originally designed by Graham, Anderson, Probst & White and completed in 1921. Twelve years later it expanded to a total size of 2.5 million sq ft. The U.S. Postal Service moved out of it in 1996, leaving the space empty for more than 20 years.
WJE was brought in to lead facade rehabilitation by 601W Cos. when a redevelopment plan for a transformation to offices finally got off the ground in 2016. WJE’s role soon expanded into roof replacement, window restoration and replacement, historic preservation consulting and fire protection consulting, among others tasks. The project was completed in 2019 at a total cost of $800 million.
大型项目在整个中西部推动18luck官网了2019年最高收入水平。但这是在2020年的头几个月之前，当时Covid-19-19，在该地区公开传播并有效地关闭了许多企业。3月下旬，Enr报道了一半的建新利luck筑公司的调查记录的新设计项目少于该月的预期。18luck官网前105名和前10名中的每个公司几乎所有公司都通过在家工作和其他措施来解决大流行。
Kimley-Horn与所有受这种新常态影响的公司一样，希望能像往常一样回到往常。随着中西部和全国其他地区的工作状况更加结构化的工作状况，人们对未来行业的变化有很多问题。
“The question is ‘What’s going to happen next month?” Beauvais says. “What does it mean for the future? The working remotely trend, we’ll probably see more of it in this industry.”
