ABI May 2022: Architecture Firms Report Strong Business Conditions, Despite Headwinds

Architecture firms continued to report strong business conditions in May, despite increasing headwinds in the economy. While the Architecture Billings Index score of 53.5 for the month means that fewer firms reported an increase in billings in May than in April (when the score was 56.5), the majority of firms reported billings growth for the 16th consecutive month.

In addition, both inquiries into new projects and the value of new design contracts ticked up this month, indicating that there is still both strong interest in new projects and a substantial number of projects in the pipeline for which contracts have already been signed.

Business conditions also improved at firms in all regions of the country for the second consecutive month in May, with firms in the Northeast continuing to report modest growth after seven straight months of declining billings. Business conditions remained strongest at firms located in the West, followed by firms located in the Midwest.

By firm specialization, while billings continued to increase at a steady clip at firms with a multifamily residential specialization, the pace of growth has slowed somewhat in recent months. Firms with a commercial/industrial specialization are still seeing the strongest conditions overall, as has been the case for much of the last year, while billings growth remained more modest at firms with an institutional specialization.