Client Mix Key to Growth for Architects, Engineers

While some architecture and engineering firms were forced to downsize in 2009, citing a continued lack of building activity in both the commercial and residential sectors, many firms have been able to increase their staff size this year by maintaining a mix of private and government clients.

Jim Parks, a principal with the Benchmark Group of Rogers, said the company has grown in 2009, mainly due to clients who have kept busy even in the development slowdown.

“Our clients are busy, so that keeps us busy,” he said.

One of those clients is the Arkansas State Military Department, for which the firm has done several projects, including ammunition supply points at Camp Robinson and Fort Chafee.

Benchmark, which took the number one spot on the annual Largest Architecture and Engineering Firms list, added 60 new employees in 2009, a 22.6 percent increase over 2008.

Parks said the other reason for Benchmark’s growth is its new offices, which the company moved into last June.

“We ran out of room in our old facilities,” he said. “We nearly doubled our office space, so now we have room to grow.”

According to data collected by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal for the list, the number of people employed by all firms decreased 4.3 percent from 2008 to 2009. The 38 firms on the list employed a total of 1,237 people.

Eight firms experienced growth in staffing levels in 2009, adding a total of 80 new employees.

Greg Shipley, a principal with Morrison-Shipley Engineers in Fort Smith, also said doing work for government clients has kept the firm from having to downsize.

The firm, No. 9 on the list, increased its staff by 12.5 percent in 2009, adding four employees.

“Many firms that started up during the peak of the Northwest Arkansas development boom did not have the government work to fall back on when the private development work slowed down,” Shipley said. “Also, because we had good government clients that were still giving us work after the development slowdown, we were able to develop the resources to go out and pursue work with new clients in new market areas for our company.”

Garver, an engineering firm with a regional office in Fayetteville, took the No. 6 ranking on the list, adding eight employees in 2009.

Brock Hoskins, senior vice president of Garver’s regional office, said the Fayetteville office serves as the company’s design center for water and wastewater treatment plants.

While the company has offices in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Texas, all of the design work for water and wastewater treatment plants is executed by a multi-disciplinary team of engineers out of the Fayetteville office.

“We’ve added a lot of people for that as water and wastewater treatment business has increased company wide,” he said.