Full Top 50 Architects table revealed

Foster & Partners has been named the UK’s biggest architect for the third year in a row.

Top 150 consultants 2018 crop

It is ranked first in the Top 50 Architects league table drawn up by BD’s sister title, Building magazine.

BDP is second, followed by AHMM, Allies & Morrison and Sheppard Robson. Full league tables are below.

Foster & Partners has 362 chartered architects – the metric on which the ranking is constructed – and 192 non-chartered architects. It reported its total staff as 1,064, up from last year’s 1,058.

The firm, founded by Norman Foster in 1967, is one of the contenders for the Stirling Prize next month, with its £1bn Bloomberg building in the City of London.

Its latest accounts, published this month, show profit and revenue both fell, something the firm blamed on the effect of several very large projects completing together.

WA100 2019

It said its order book was at near record levels. Last year the firm carried out work in nearly 50 countries, including high-profile jobs for Apple at its campus in California and store openings for the tech giant in cities including Milan.

* Meanwhile, BD’s annual league table of the world’s biggest architects, the WA100, will be published in December. The survey is live now: www.bdonline.co.uk/wa-100. Make sure your practice fills it in to be in with a chance of featuring.

 

RankFirmUK architectural staffTotal UK chartered staffTotal UK staffOffices
2018 2017  Chartered architects Non-chartered / technical 2017 2018 2017 2018 UK Worldwide 
Top 50 architects 2018

1

1

Foster & Partners

362

192

402

395

1,058

1,064

1

11

2

2

BDP

315

120

468

529

807

878

6

6

3

 

Allford Hall Monaghan Morris

247

76

244

247

370

395

1

1

4

3

Allies and Morrison 

179

128

189

179

337

344

4

1

5

4

Sheppard Robson 

165

0

174

165

345

359

3

0

6

6=

Scott Brownrigg 

119

73

124

127

241

244

5

3

7

8

Stride Treglown

114

117

149

154

323

334

9

0

8=

 

Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios

111

-

154

149

203

195

4

0

8=

5

TP Bennett

111

60

119

111

312

303

2

54

10=

12

AHR

92

61

120

123

327

308

8

3

10=

13

EPR Architects 

92

44

84

92

160

157

1

0

12

9

PRP

90

74

108

94

257

248

3

1

13

10

Broadway Malyan

89

82

100

89

270

256

5

10

14

11

Aecom

85

157

3,003

2,767

6,962

6,054

42

630

15

15

Levitt Bernstein

81

35

81

81

137

137

2

0

16

14

Pollard Thomas Edwards

80

59

82

80

149

161

1

0

17

16

HTA Design

74

59

79

74

187

199

4

0

18

19=

JMArchitects

69

35

63

70

106

111

4

0

19

17

ADP

66

21

75

66

113

101

7

1

20

 

Donald Insall Associates 

65

-

72

82

118

131

8

1

21

19=

Fletcher Priest Architects

63

38

64

63

112

120

1

2

22

18

3DReid

61

40

51

61

138

117

5

0

23

 

Mace

57

-

1,387

1,556

3,760

3,952

15

45

24=

26

Arup 

55

78

1,802

1,901

5,308

5,599

14

73

24=

24=

HLM AD

55

73

49

55

161

167

7

2

26

21

Jestico & Whiles

52

18

61

52

107

97

1

1

27

24=

Stockwool

49

15

49

49

73

73

1

0

28=

22

NPS Group

45

49

224

194

784

719

18

0

28=

30

AWW 

45

-

54

61

70

77

3

3

30=

28

Pick Everard

42

16

319

326

401

474

11

0

30=

39=

ECE Architecture

42

27

39

47

66

85

3

0

30=

23

Aukett Swanke

42

29

53

47

106

94

1

8

33

35=

Bryden Wood Technology

41

20

54

62

178

188

2

2

34

32

Holder Mathias Architects

38

-

38

38

55

61

2

1

35=

33=

Lewis & Hickey

37

24

49

47

100

79

5

1

35=

 

DarntonB3 Architecture

37

53

43

40

116

115

7

0

37

38

P&HS Architects

35

20

35

36

56

63

3

0

38

41

R H Partnership Architects

33

16

32

33

62

61

3

0

39

37

Stephen George & Partners

32

35

35

32

85

85

5

0

40

42=

Kendall Kingscott

31

28

64

70

134

147

4

0

41

27

Child Graddon Lewis

30

-

44

53

51

61

2

0

42

42=

Pozzoni Architecture

29

27

31

36

53

73

2

0

43=

44

Mott MacDonald

27

14

3,692

3,697

7,107

7,115

38

134

43=

45

Grid architects

27

25

25

27

48

52

1

0

45=

46

Penoyre & Prasad

25

7

28

25

40

39

1

0

45=

 

Ridge & Partners

25

32

197

231

486

632

10

1

45=

33=

LSI Architects

25

13

36

37

62

66

2

0

48

49

Bailey Partnership

24

13

50

61

99

108

4

0

48

 

IDP Group

23

58

26

29

91

95

3

3

50=

 

Clague

22

15

28

31

54

57

3

0

50=

39=

Whittam Cox Architects 

22

48

55

50

138

125

3

0

 

Methodology

Close to 250 firms were contacted for this year’s Building Top Consultants survey.  They were sent a survey form asking them to provide details on the number of chartered staff, non-chartered and technical staff, and on their domestic and worldwide fee incomes.  

Practices were also asked questions relating to: staff recruitment, wage patterns, margins, areas of work, and work expectations. All data in the attached tables are taken directly from firms’ replies.

The survey does not claim to list all the top consultants, as it relies upon firms completing and returning the annual survey form. For a variety of reasons firms sometimes decide not to take part. 

Only those firms completing and returning the survey form are included in the survey.  

Firms having any questions about the survey, or wishing to be included in the 2019 survey, should contact Martin Hewes at Hewes & Associates: www.hewes-associates.com.   

Notes

  1. WSP UK: Chartered total includes 1,193 other chartered, not identified in any questions
  2. Arup: Income data for 2018 are unaudited and provisional
  3. Mace: Income data refers to the total group, and thus includes construction
  4. RPS: 2017 employment data are non-comparable and have thus been excluded
  5. BDP: Totals include other chartered staff 
  6. Tuffin Ferraby Taylor: 2017 data are taken from 2017 survey results
  7. Levitt Bernstein: Income figures are estimates
  8. Price & Myers: Fee income for 2018 is estimated
  9. Artelia: Worldwide income is converted from euros
  10. Stride Treglown: Other engineers include town planner, landscape architects, and architectural technologist staff

Additional note: Due to an administrative error, HTA Design LLP (ranked 17), R H Partnership Architects Ltd (38) and Penoyre & Prasad (45=) were not originally included in the Top 50 Architects table. This table was updated on Tuesday 2 October to reflect their rank. As a result of this change, the table now includes 51 organisations due to Clague and Whittam Cox Architects being ranked 50=. RPS and Ingleton Wood (both ranked 52=) now no longer appear on the table.