Urban Jumps in Top 500 Design Firm Listing

When the Engineering News Record (ENR) released its 2010 listing of the Top 500 Design Firms, it revealed that Urban Engineers, Inc. had leapt from No. 359 in 2009 to No. 271 in 2010. The 2010 ranking is based on 2009 total revenue.

As noted in ENR, most engineering firms experienced a poor year in the challenging economic environment. The report stated that, "Of the 458 firms appearing on both this year's Top 500 and the 2009 list, 323, or 70.5%, report a decline in design revenue, while only 135 saw it rise. Instances of large revenue increases are attributed to acquisitions."

Urban's president, Edward M. D'Alba, PE, noted that, "We were able to buck this trend by leaning on our long-term-strategic commitment to pursue and perform to the highest levels on projects of all sizes, and with balance between design and construction services (Last year, Urban was ranked No. 40 by ENR for construction management, and this year’s rankings won’t be released until June). Financial constraints curtailed many of the larger new assignments that our industry was hopeful for, but fortunately for Urban, we were well positioned to respond to our client's shifted priorities, of smaller assignments with quick turnaround.”