ENR East’s Top Design Firms 2026 ranking shows abundant opportunities in data centers, as well as water and transportation sector work, particularly projects in good repair. The 128 companies on this year’s ranking produced a combined total of $18.7 billion in regional revenue last year, a 3% decrease from the $19.08 billion in revenue of 153 companies on the previous year’s list. Companies are located in the eastern states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
The combined revenue of the top 10 companies in 2026 rose nearly 4% to $7.8 billion. The top three ranked companies remain the same as last year’s list, with
AECOM takes the top spot again, with revenue of $1.64 billion in 2025, down slightly from $1.67 billion the previous year. WSP USA finished second with $1.44 billion, up 3.6% from the $1.39 billion reported in last year’s survey. Stantec ranks third with $681.44 million, up 6.5% from $640.14 million posted last year.
Distribution tables categorize company revenue by state and various design specialties and disciplines. There are also rankings for the MidAtlantic, New York and New England subregions. The top 20 companies in the Mid-Atlantic reported total revenue of $5.51 billion, up 5% from the $5.25 billion reported last year. The top 20 companies in New York and New Jersey reported revenue of $4.93 billion in 2025, up 2.7%. New England’s top 20 reported combined earnings of $2.4 billion, down 4.4% from the $2.51 billion reported a year earlier.
The executives of the classified companies remain optimistic about the opportunities in the East. Samuel Donelson, AECOM’s executive vice president and regional executive director for US East and Latin America, says data center work is driven by “sustained demand for digital infrastructure and cloud capacity.”
AECOM #1 and STV #9 are in a joint venture to provide construction management and inspection services for the Portal North Bridge replacement in New Jersey.
Photo courtesy of STV
Donelson also sees growing demand for program management services as public sector clients seek experienced partners to help integrate and deliver increasingly complex capital programs. “The overall outlook for the sector remains strong, supported by continued public sector investment and long-term infrastructure needs,” he says.
“The overall outlook for the sector remains strong, supported by continued public sector investment and long-term infrastructure needs.”
—Sam Donelson, Executive Vice President and Regional Executive Director for US East and Latin America, AECOM
He notes that federal work remains active as spending aligns with the administration’s evolving priorities. Donelson says transportation infrastructure continues to require significant funding, although the emphasis is shifting from large-scale capacity expansions to a good state of repair. AECOM and STV #9 are in a joint venture to provide comprehensive construction management and inspection services to NJ Transit for the Portal North Bridge replacement, including live rail sequencing, phased construction supervision, stakeholder coordination and major activities required to replace the 100-year-old swing bridge with a fixed-span, high-level crossing.
Will Flores, senior vice president of STV’s Northern Transportation Operations Group, says projects like the Portal North Bridge “highlight the scale and complexity” of large-scale programs focused on good repair, which require “deep technical expertise, careful planning and close coordination between multiple agencies while maintaining active rail service.”
Resilient New York City is a partnership between Arcadis #6 and the New York City Department of Environmental Protection that aims to advance green stormwater management, including the installation of an underground infiltration system at Flushing Hospital in Flushing, New York.
Photo courtesy of Arcadis
Flores says opportunities also exist in projects that combine engineering rigor with disciplined delivery, especially in dense and highly constrained environments, where success is measured not only by what is built, but also “by how the critical milestones are executed safely and seamlessly.”
Jee Mee Kim, Arcadis vice president and executive for the New York City region, agrees that transportation remains a significant opportunity for the No. 6 company, which posted revenue of $597.55 million by 2025 despite federal funding challenges. He says congestion pricing in New York City has “unlocked $15 billion” for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority to advance its capital program “with a state of good repair that is almost 90 percent.”
Kim says water is also an important area of work, noting that the New York City Department of Environmental Protection “continues to support a large capital program” for drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems.
