The anniversaries just won't stop. After celebrating 75 years of this magazine throughout 2007, you thought you'd get a rest. But no. January 2008 marks the 30th anniversary of the Interior Design Giants, the firms that generate the revenues that give design cause to call itself an industry. Looks like you'll have to get out your dancing shoes all over again.
Some things remain the same. (We still wag our fingers at fur-wrapped bathtubs and monogrammed toilet paper.) Others have definitely changed since 1978, when we decided to "invest in building a solid statistical base of organized information for the profession." Back then—you might want to sit down for this—Gensler was only number 30. There were also just 75 firms worthy of the designation Giant, compared to today's top 100, second 100, 75 in hospitality, and 40 in health care.
The money has changed, too. For 630,625,729 square feet installed, 2007's total income was $2,386,469,323, up 15 percent from the previous year and 12 percent more than the Giants had forecast. Over a period of five years, the increase was 63 percent. The average employee brought in $253,927 worth of fees, with a minimum of $76,885 and a maximum of $899,000.
The original Giants, however, were asked to report neither square footage nor fees but the value of installed product: $854,400,000 for all 75 firms, versus $13,722,225,288 for the 75 current Giants that reported the highest F&F dollar values. (Unfortunately, 19 didn't bother reporting any.) In today's money, the earliest Giants' total project value would be $3,025,062,171. Still adjusting for inflation, the early Giants' average design professional was responsible for $1,329,546 of installation value, whereas today's is responsible for $1,545,878.
In many ways, comparing the 1978 and 2008 Giants is a lesson in U.S. economic history. Three decades ago, the top firms were most heavily represented in New York, California, Michigan, and Ohio, and they had twice as many projects in Michigan and Ohio as on either coast. Today, the Giants are roughly 50 percent stronger on the coasts, with a presence that's become almost spectral in what we've come to call the rust belt.
Foreign projects are most numerous this time in Latin America followed by Asia, the Middle East, Europe, Canada, the Pacific Rim, and Africa. In 1978, the Middle East led, followed at a distance by a tie between Asia and Canada, then Africa and Europe but nothing south of the Rio Grande. Among the entities that made the Giants list that year were department stores and furniture manufacturers with design departments, hotel and motel in-house designers, and even the General Services Administration and U.S. Navy.
Back then, a respect for nature meant, often as not, selecting green and brown tones for materials that we find ecologically questionable today. Now, environmental responsibility is part of the mission statements of 68 top Giants, up from 45 a year ago. Three firms claim they follow LEED guidelines at all times. Among the Giants' 10,968 design employees, 4,776 are LEED-accredited.
At least half the products that 27 of today's firms specify are green, with another six firms specifying 75 percent or more and one firm at 100 percent. The total value of those products is $5,403,637,500, more than double last year's figure. Government clients are the most receptive to green design, followed by educational, corporate/office, hospitality and—in a shocking fifth place—health care. Tsk-tsk, indeed.
The first installment of the two-part annual business survey of Interior Design Giants comprises the 100 largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2007. The second 100 Giants firm ranking will be published in July.
Interior design fees include fees attributed to:
1. All types of interiors work, including commercial and residential.
2. All aspects of a firm's interior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.
3. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are "full-time staff equivalent."
Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not considered the equivalent of full-time staff. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and retain a fee for management or generation, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter firm are not included in the fees of the collecting firm in determining its ranking. Data was compiled and analyzed by Interior Design's market research staff in New York: research director Wing Leung and research manager Laura Girmscheid. Judith Davidsen is a frequent contributor to Interior Design.
