a bedroom connected to an outdoor patio
The Montage Healdsburg Residences’s Harvest Homes in Healdsburg, California, are by EDG Interior Architecture and Design. Photography by Roger Davies.

Interior Design Reveals the 2023 Rising Giants

There’s rising and then there’s Rising. Our list of the second 100 largest firms injected the moniker with helium in 2022. Total fees came in at $532 million, a 50 percent increase from 2021—well above the recent low of $314 million in 2020, and a hair above pre-pandemic numbers.

Rising Giants 2023

wdt_ID 2023 Rank Firm Headquarters Design Fees (in millions) FFC Value (in millions) Sq. Ft. (in millions) Design Staff 2022 Overall Rank
1 101 Wolcott Architecture Los Angeles 10.04 0.14 - 45 93A
2 102 Array Architects Conshohocken, PA 9.46 420.00 - 78 NEW
3 103 Chambers Baltimore 9.41 9.41 - 37 92
4 104 Aria Group Architects Oak Park, IL 9.35 13.30 1.17 67 95
5 105 tvsdesign Atlanta 9.17 0.10 - 63 78
6 106 Kasian Architecture, Interior Design and Planning Vancouver, Canada 9.14 0.00 - 157 100
7 107 CBRE Design Collective Dallas 9.10 364.44 - 67 NEW
8 108 KZF Design Cincinnati 9.03 706.00 6.12 77 88
9 109 EDG Interior Architecture and Design Novato, CA 9.00 115.00 0.55 53 120
10 110 Tricarico Architecture and Design Wayne, NJ 8.88 432.00 2.9 15 188

“-“ did not report data

As for the breakdown of business segments, hospitality is to the Rising Giants what corporate projects are to the top 100: the big money driver. But while that sector remained a solid number one last year, it’s down to 30 percent of overall fees ($162 million) compared to 38 percent two years ago. Corporate is second, at 25 percent ($131 million), followed by residential at 17 percent ($89 million), and healthcare at 9 percent ($46 million). The Rising Giants predict only gentle fluctuations in this breakdown for 2023, forecasting a slight drop in corporate and a rise in residential, with hospitality holding firm.

Meanwhile, furniture, fixtures, and construction products appear to be booming—more than doubling, to $35.8 billion—but that figure is driven by large totals from a single firm. Still, FF&C had already been rebounding well from a pandemic low of $10 billion in 2020, and the Rising Giants forecast $38 billion for next year.

Furnishings & Fixtures vs. Construction

As with the 100 Giants, the relationship between number of projects and total square footage is somewhat imbalanced. Projects truly popped, at almost 23,000—up from 15,000 in 2021 and nearly doubling the pre-pandemic figure of 12,000 in 2019. Square footage, at 188 million, doesn’t track with it, however. That’s a slight bump from 2021 but a pipe dream compared to 301 million in 2019, likely resulting from firms diversifying their services (more consulting and branding projects), plus hybrid work affecting client’s spatial allocations.

Risers, like the 100, have seen an influx of new talent to execute this work. Design staff members, which had hovered around 2,600 for the past three years, jumped 62 percent to nearly 4,200 in 2022. The all-employee total also increased 27 percent.

Recruiting and retaining qualified staff remains the biggest challenge, so salaries have also risen since 2019. Most employees have seen a 14 to 16 percent raise (project managers/directors excepted), and the average designer salary has climbed to $80,000—the highest since we’ve tracked this data.

Will all this good business hold? This group has offered a healthy 2023 forecast of $583 billion in total fees, a 10 percent increase. And while most are confident about this prediction, fewer are saying they’re “very” or “extremely” so. Semantics? Perhaps. But the Rising Giants are rising indeed.


See the 2023 Top 100 Giants here.


Firms with the Most Fee Growth

wdt_ID Firm 2021 2022
1 Tricarico Architecture and Design 1,300,000 8,880,000
2 Premier 2,000,000 7,100,000
3 Beasley & Henley Interior Design 5,144,000 8,713,480
4 EDG Interior Architecture and Design 5,595,000 9,000,000
5 Steelman Partners 6,178,375 8,718,000
6 Hendrick 4,000,000 6,500,000
7 KTGY Simeone Deary Design Group 4,400,000 6,800,000
8 Flick Mars 2,476,125 4,857,944
9 BKV Group 1,213,000 3,500,000
10 Bar Napkin Productions 4,000,000 6,000,000

Fees by Project Type

wdt_ID Project Type 2022 Actual 2023 Forecast
1 Hospitality 161,626,361 178,279,921
2 Corporate Offices 131,132,773 129,297,668
3 Residential 88,622,756 101,603,194
4 Healthcare 46,421,082 50,486,342
5 Education 21,683,950 22,979,378
6 Retail 18,469,636 19,585,483
7 Mixed-use (new) 13,502,611 16,291,824
8 Government 10,840,486 11,416,606
9 Cultural 3,094,278 3,829,466
10 Transportation* 3,711,495 2,083,466
11 Manufacturing/Warehouse/Data Centers (new) 2,670,883 2,434,869
12 Life Sciences (new) 2,130,859 2,280,060
13 Sports Centers (new) 1,179,911 1,263,705
14 Other* 20,409,666 21,709,883

Practice Issues

wdt_ID Practice Issues Percentage
1 Recruiting qualified staff 89
2 Training staff 43
3 Retaining staff 40
4 Creating new business/Diversifying into new segments 31
5 Recruiting diverse staff 28
6 Offering staff appropriate pay scale and benefits 28
7 Marketing firm’s capabilities 20
8 Keeping track of profits and expenses 4

Client Issues

wdt_ID Client Issues Percentage
1 Retaining current clients 4.30
2 New competing business entities entering the market (I.e., Co-working, CRE services, etc.) 12.80
3 Finding new clients 25.50
4 Client willingness to take design risks 29.80
5 Managing client expectations 40.40
6 Getting clients to understand design value 52.10
7 Client willingness to pay what it’s worth 66.00

Business Issues

wdt_ID Business Issues Percentage
1 Earning appropriate fees 66
2 Uncertain economy 62
3 Dealing with clients’ increasing demands 54
4 Increasing interference from clients’ consultants 21
5 Managing vendors 20
6 Managing the growing need for sustainable design 12
7 Creating cutting-edge design solutions 10

Most Admired Firms

Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Rising Giants most admired firms of 2023 below. Gensler tops the list followed by Rockwell Group and AvroKO.

Read More About Gensler

Read More About Rockwell Group

Read More About AvroKO


Project Categories

wdt_ID Project Categories Percentage
1 New Construction 46
2 Renovation/Retrofit 45
3 Refresh: Cosmetic Changes Only 9

Total Projects by Type

wdt_ID Project Type 2022 2023 Forecast
1 Office 371,462 408,254
2 Hospitality 2,659 3,033
3 Retail 1,350 1,724
4 Government 885 1,076
5 Healthcare/Assisted Living 16,661 3,154
6 Education 1,014 1,165
7 Residential 287,507 316,397
8 Transportation 103 103
9 Cultural 442 493
10 Life Sciences (new) 503 100,643

Project Locations

International Project Locations

wdt_ID Location Percentage
1 Canada 38
2 Mexico 23
3 Caribbean 26
4 Central/South America 3
5 Europe 21
6 Asia/Pacific Rim 31
7 Africa 13
8 Other 15

Total FFC Value

wdt_ID Year FFC Value
1 2022 Actual 2,147,483,647
2 2023 Forecast 2,147,483,647

Square Feet Installed

wdt_ID Year Square Feet Installed
1 2022 Actual Sq. Ft 188,289,490
2 2023 Forecast Sq. Ft 210,081,326

Salary

wdt_ID Job Title Median Annual Salary
1 Principals/Partners 182,885
2 Project Managers/Directors 105,000
3 Designers 80,000
4 Other Interior Design Staff 65,000

Hourly Rate

wdt_ID Job Title Median Hourly Rate
1 Principals/Partners 250
2 Project Managers/Directors 171
3 Designers 134
4 Other Interior Design Staff 100

Billable Time

wdt_ID Billable Time 2023 Giants
1 < 70% 17
2 70-79% 15
3 80-89% 38
4 90-99% 21
5 100% 8
6 Average 80

Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2022. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, or Hospitality Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. 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 full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

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