Population growth, infrastructure investments and economic development are driving long-term opportunities in the Mountain States and the Southwest, making it one of the most dynamic regions in the country for design and construction, says Karen Doherty, senior vice president of WSP. The international design firm once again topped the list of the region’s top design firms this year with $661 million in reported revenue across its 26 regional offices.
Eighty-three companies from the eight-state region shared their revenue, key sectors and top projects with ENR during the magazine’s annual design survey. Rankings and sector distributions appear on page MSSW12 of this issue.
For WSP, “Our growth has been driven by a diverse portfolio led by power and energy, transportation and environmental/water services, supported by continued strength in mining, advanced manufacturing and community infrastructure,” says Doherty. In the power and energy sector, utilities are investing heavily in grid modernization, transmission expansion and resilience initiatives, particularly those linked to additional generation and wildfire mitigation. “These programs are creating sustained, multi-year opportunities in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado,” he adds.
The $250 million Craig Hospital project, designed by Davis Partnership, will increase capacity at Denver’s famed neurorehabilitation hospital by 15 percent with 26 new patient rooms.
Image courtesy DPR Construction
Doherty says transportation remains a consistent backbone of the market, with state DOTs, transit agencies and municipal programs moving forward on highway rehabilitation, transit expansion and multimodal improvements, “and these efforts continue to drive demand for integrated planning, design and program delivery services. And we’re seeing a strong push in work focused on water, environment and resilience, including infrastructure management services and conservation services and infrastructure/environmental conservation permits”.
John Take, executive vice president of Stantec, says that as the region transitions from its broad post-pandemic expansion, it is leaning into a more targeted growth cycle. “We see Arizona as the region’s dominant growth driver in nearly every construction category; heavy civil and infrastructure spending is rising to offset any weakness in traditional non-residential building, while single-family residential remains the largest sector by value of all states with long-term positive growth. Industrial and labor sectors face headwinds, and data center expansions present a massive opportunity, but this carries a risk of shortage of water”.
Stantec ranks sixth on this year’s Top Design Firms list with regional revenue of $296 million by 2025, up from $253.9 million in 2024.
New technologies drive design trends
“Grid modernization and resiliency efforts are driving more complex multidisciplinary transmission and substation design work,” Take says, “and utilities are prioritizing system reliability and the integration of next-generation sources.”
Design firms are increasingly delivering projects using integrated, multi-sector approaches, which require coordination across transportation, water, energy and environmental disciplines, Take says. “We are seeing growing demand for early-stage environmental, planning and advisory services, helping clients position projects for funding and successful delivery.”
The Downtown Hub East for Valley Metro, designed by AECOM, is Arizona’s first commercial transit hub, transforming an aging thoroughfare into a vibrant transit plaza with lighted art canopies and a curved segmented platform that allows for mid-station pedestrian crossings.
Image courtesy Valley Metro
looking ahead
Across industries, digital delivery tools, advanced modeling and data-driven decision making are improving efficiency and enabling better project outcomes, says Take. “We see emerging technologies like artificial intelligence enhancing the capabilities of our engineers and planners, augmenting rather than replacing human expertise, and enabling our teams to deliver insights of greater value to customers,” he adds.
“We are seeing growing demand for early-stage environmental, planning and advisory services, helping clients position projects for funding and successful delivery.”
—John Take, executive vice president of Stantec
Take predicts that leading sectors by 2027 will include transportation and institutional markets such as education, healthcare, electrical/energy infrastructure and commercial office buildings.
“In addition to growing advanced manufacturing investments, the region is also home to 421 data centers [342 of which are operational, while 79 are in planning/construction] making this projected data center market the largest investment sector in the region,” he says.
“We expect the construction market in the Mountain States and Southwest to remain strong but selective over the next year, with growth concentrated in sectors aligned with long-term funding and policy priorities,” says Doherty.
“Energy and infrastructure modernization will continue to lead the market, particularly in transmission, grid reliability and the integration of new generation. Transportation and water programs supported by federal and state funding will maintain a steady pipeline, although the project schedule may remain variable,” he says. “At the same time, variability linked to funding cycles and permitting timelines and increased construction costs will require flexibility and strong collaboration between owners and delivery partners.
