The latest insights from the 2024 Firm Survey Report

In 2024, the lasting impact of the pandemic and subsequent upheaval across the construction industries has altered the share of billings generated by smaller firms versus their larger counterparts.

This is just one of the key findings of the The Business of Architecture 2024: The Firm Survey Report, a biennial offering from AIA that tracks data on architecture firm billings, finances, and performance. 

The share of national billings across the profession within the categories of small, midsize and large firms barely budged between 2005 and 2015. Between 2015 and 2023, however, the billings generated by smaller firms fell by one-half, and the share generated by midsize firms fell by 40%. Both drops were offset by a 40% increase in the share of billings generated by larger firms, the report found. 

This is notable because while there are more than 19,000 architecture firms in the United States, an overwhelming majority are very small businesses. More than one quarter of these firms (28%) are sole practitioners, 32% have two to four employees, and 15% have five to nine employees. The majority of architecture firms, about 75%, have fewer than 10 employees. These statistics have remained consistent over the last several report cycles.

Per this year’s report, the share of design revenue for building types differs significantly from the share of overall construction spending devoted to those projects.  

In 2023, architecture firms received about 20% of their design revenue from residential projects, while the remaining 80% came from projects in the nonresidential building sector. Within nonresidential building activity, about a third of design revenue comes from the private commercial/industrial category, with the remaining two-thirds from institutional projects.  

However, architects are much more involved in some building types than others. For example, the construction and remodeling of single-family homes accounted for over 40% of spending in the residential and nonresidential building sector in 2023. Since architects focus their efforts on the custom residential segment rather than the production of homes, they received only 8% of their billings from this sector that year.

Likewise, manufacturing construction accounted for 12% of construction spending in 2023, but only 3% of design billings were devoted to this sector. At the other extreme, architecture firms received 55% of their billings from institutional projects, even though that sector accounted for less than 20% of residential and nonresidential building construction spending.  

4 other key findings:  

• One-third of firms of all sizes reported using AI in day-to-day work at their firm. Large firms are significantly more likely to report using AI, with 61% indicating that they are currently using it for day-to-day work, versus just 27% of small firms and 42% of midsize firms.
• Just over half (52%) of architecture firm gross billings in 2023 came from new construction projects, while 45% were from renovations, rehabilitations, and retrofits; additions to existing structures; and/or historic preservation activities—consistent with findings from 2021.
• Architecture firms continued to report the largest share of billings from institutional projects in 2023, 53% on average, superseding the pre-pandemic share of 51% in 2019 and consistent with higher construction activity in this sector.  
• Commercial projects also had a higher share of design activity versus construction spending, although the gap was much smaller. The design of multifamily residential projects just about matched construction outflows. 

View key findings and download the full report here.