Interior Design Spotlights 2024 Healthcare Giants

Healthcare maintained its edge over hospitality as second-largest sector, a mantle it first achieved in 2020. The category continued to experience solid growth in 2023, defying a predicted levelling-off. In fact, design fees increased 26 percent last year, and the dollar amount—$880,469,047—reflects a very healthy 45 percent jump since 2019. The total number of projects ballooned as well: a 19 percent uptick, marking a 105 percent increase over 2019 numbers.

Holding steady as the top three subsectors are acute-care facilities, outpatient care, and clinics—a trio projected to carry the healthcare category yet again in 2024. The vast majority of those proj- ects are located in the U.S., the hottest growth area being (no surprise) the south. The 10 percent sliver of overseas work is concentrated in the same three regions that dominate other verticals: Asia, Canada, and Europe. About a third of Giants predict growth in international healthcare markets this year.

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“blank space” did not report data

Of the 50 Healthcare Giants ranked, 10 names are new, which reflects market growth and diversification. A number of firms had big movement last year, including LS3P, which jumped up 15 places in the rankings to number 31, reflecting a healthcare income increase from $1.6 to $4.3 million.

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Digging into FF&C value, we were happy to see a 23 percent year-over-year increase—and a wowzers 50 percent more than 2019 numbers. Overall for the top 200 firms, the ratio between FF and C has been skewing more heavily to furniture and fixtures in recent years; healthcare has been the sole exception and remains so again this year, despite slowing construction, rising costs, and clients pivoting to more refresh projects.

When Healthcare Giants gaze into the crystal balls to predict how they’ll fare in 2024, they anticipate another 20 percent FF&C growth. But this optimism is not reflective of overall positivity. In fact, despite the all-good news regarding last year’s tallies, Healthcare Giants predict a 16 percent decline—perhaps because of economic uncertainty and volatility, perhaps because long-gestating projects that kicked off during the pandemic are winding down. In fact, the 2024 design-fee figures Giants are expecting for healthcare and hospitality sectors mark a closing of the gap between them, to just a few million. Stay tuned to find out which segment takes the No. 2 mantle.

Read more about Interior Design’s latest Giants of Design, including Top 100, Sustainability, Rising, Hospitality.

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Project Categories

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Firms With the Most Fee Growth

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Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Healthcare Giants most admired firms below. Perkins&Will tops the list followed by EwingCole, NBBJ, CannonDesign, and HKS.

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Percentage of International Work by Region

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Methodology

The Interior Design Giants of Design annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2023. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, Hospitality, or Sustainability Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America and generate at least 25 percent of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s interior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not considered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and retain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all percent ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number.

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

6 Design Leaders Explore Ways To Boost Company Wellness

Shoptalk is our roundup where we ask industry insiders questions seeking insight into the design world. This time, we asked design leaders at Aedifica, INC Architecture & Design, BHDM Design, Philpotts Interiors, Marguiles Perruzzi, and RATIO Design, respected firms hailing from across the U.S. and Canada: What is your firm doing to foster a robust internal culture?

Discover Tips To Encourage Company Wellness

Scheduling A Mixture Of Company Events

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Creative Grants For Employees

Creating A Direct Support System

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Collaborative Meetings With Co-Workers + Vendors

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Boosting Office Connections Weekly

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Bridging The Hybrid Divide

5 Design Experts Share Challenges Facing the Hospitality Sector

Shoptalk is our roundup where we ask industry insiders topical questions seeking insight into the design zeitgeist. This time, we asked design leaders at HBA International, CHIL Interior Design, Hart Howerton, TVS and The Gettys Group Companies, respected firms hailing from across the U.S. and Canada: What are some current practice issues in hospitality?

Take Note Of These Practice Issues In The Hospitality Field

Era of Economic Uncertainty

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The Impact of Rising Product Costs

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Explore Recent Hospitality Projects and Trends

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Challenging Lead Times

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Looking to A.I. and Technological Advances

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Evolving Hospitality Culture

This Youth Mental-Health Campus is Designed to Heal

Named after the Hawaiian word for family, the Ohana Center for Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health, a youth mental-health campus, centers on the principle of caring—not just for patients but also their support networks. (Staff turnover in the psychiatric health sector is close to 40 percent.) To assist the mission, NBBJ turned to the power of nature and beauty, which is abundant in Monterey, California.

“We took the traditional institutional box that defines today’s behavioral-health facilities and bent it around the surrounding oak trees, symbolic of healing the site,” says lead designer Jonathan Ward of the project’s curved single-story volumes, filled with hospitality-style furniture and art chosen to support emotional processing and self-empowerment. The envelope of prefabricated cross-laminated timber embraces patients and visitors.

“Upon arrival, the exposed timber structures are welcoming,” Ward adds. “We’re hardwired to react to nature—and to these warm, soft materials.” Floor-to-ceiling views connect the 16-bed residential program and out-patient clinic to the landscape, where winding garden paths lead to a fitness center, scented by the nearby Pacific Ocean and such fragrant plants as sagebrush and immunity-boosting lavender.

Inside a Refreshed Children’s Hospital Named for a Baseball Star

Needing more space for specialized services, this pediatric healthcare provider in Hollywood, Florida, named after the legendary baseballer went vertical—adding four floors on top of the existing four. The (ahem) catch was that the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital had to remain open during the expansion. HKS paid homage to DiMaggio when combining the building’s old and new sections by conceptually referencing hand stitching on a baseball. In fact, “Stitch, weave, mend” became the team’s refrain, in reference to how the project creates an envelope for mending lives. A comprehensive cardiac-care area and places of respite for caregivers were part of the addition.

“We seamlessly integrated the new floors, each themed around the message of play as a healing force,” HKS project manager and lead designer Anne Carr says. “The crown jewel, an eighth-floor family space, stands as a testament to our commitment.” The construction more than doubled the size of the building, adding 92 patient beds in the process. Playful colors and patterns throughout help to positively distract and boost moods, for a design journey that embraces the well-being of staff and patients alike.

Unveiling Interior Design’s 2024 Hospitality Giants

2023 marked a year of very strong recovery for the Giants in general, with almost all metrics surpassing the 2019 levels: salaries, staffing, billing rates, fees. But when it comes to the sector-by-sector temperature-check, the landscape is more uneven. Hospitality joins corporate in the recovery-pending zone. Giants working in this vertical are still struggling to surpass pre-pandemic fees: They’re down 44 percent compared to 2019. In fact, hospitality is faring the worst of all sectors. Chalk it up to the expected revenge travel surge that never came to pass, and that business travel remains sluggish.

“blank cells” = did not report data

But looking more closely at individual data points, hospitality fee income did increase 12 percent year-over-year, and Giants are predicting another small 5 percent bump-up for 2024. So, the needle is moving in the right direction. Moreover, these are quite high fees: $645.6 million in 2023 (versus $576.2 in 2022)! To put things in better perspective, the verticals experiencing double-digit growth—including government/civic and transportation—make up a much, much smaller piece of the Giants pie in comparison. It stands to follow that hospitality has a comparatively bigger dollar-amount gap to recover.

Typical for this sector, the greatest growth is happening in luxury hotels, comprising almost a quarter of fees, with restaurants in second, resorts in third, and boutique hotels in fourth— together driving some serious dollars. Many other segments, including cruise ships, remain flat, however. Segment predictions for 2024 are dead-even with 2023 actuals, with a majority expecting the most growth in luxury hotels.

Project totals are also way up, to the tune of 40 percent year-over-year and 63 percent higher than 2019. The hard numbers are fantastic: almost 8,000 projects, a figure that doubled over the last decade. And Giants are expecting another 11 percent project growth for 2024, which would bring the amount very close to 9k.

You may be scratching your head thinking something doesn’t track: How can hospitality projects balloon so much over the last five years—but fees overall remain down from 2019? A likely explanation is that Giants are working on smaller projects for less dollars, and/or more renovation projects versus new construction. This would be in line with anecdotal reporting. Interestingly, FF&C value also increased robustly between 2022 and 2023: from $14.7 to $22.4 billion. That’s 53 percent year-over- year and surpassing the 2019 numbers by 15 percent. Again, these big digits to some extent reflect the inflating cost of products and construction. But Giants expect a strong 22 percent growth curve for 2024, which implies an upward trend that’s independent of hard costs. (The FF/C ratio has been consistent over the last decade but is currently trending higher towards furniture and fixtures.)

In terms of locations, Hospitality Giants tend to have the highest percentage of overseas projects in comparison to other verticals. While most sectors hover around a 90/10 split between domestic and international, hospitality has traditionally held steady around 80/20, and this year is no different, albeit skewing toward domestic. Once again, the biggest growth markets are Asia, Canada, and Europe overseas and, in the U.S., the southernmost regions.

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Editor’s Note: Take a look at recent coverage of our Hospitality Giants most admired firms of 2024 below. Yabu Pushelberg tops the list followed by AvroKO, Rockwell Group, and Meyer Davis Studio.

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Percentage of Firms Projecting Regional Growth Over the Next Two Years

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Methodology

The Interior Design Giants annual business survey comprises the largest firms ranked by interior design fees for the 12-month period ending December 31, 2023. The listings are generated from only those surveyed. To be recognized as a top 100, Rising, Healthcare, Hospitality, or Sustainability Giant, you must meet the following criteria: Have at least one office location in North America, and generate at least 25% of your interior design fee income in North America. Firms that do not meet the criteria are ranked on our International Giants list. Interior design fees include those attributed to:

1. All aspects of a firm’s in­terior design practice, from strategic planning and programming to design and project management.

2. Fees paid to a firm for work performed by employees and independent contractors who are “full-time staff equivalent.”

Interior design fees do not include revenues paid to a firm and remitted to subcontractors who are not con­sid­ered full-time staff equivalent. For example, certain firms attract work that is subcontracted to a local firm. The originating firm may collect all the fees and re­tain a management or generation fee, paying the remainder to the performing firm. The amounts paid to the latter are not included in fees of the collecting firm when determining its ranking. Ties are broken by rank from last year. Where applicable, all per­cent­ages are based on responding Giants, not their total number. 

All research conducted by ThinkLab, the research division of SANDOW Design Group.

Rockwell Group Updates a Historic Hotel in Boca Raton

Addison Mizner would be proud. One of the last projects of the early 20th–century American architect, who is perhaps best known for the Mediterranean revival mansions he built throughout Palm Beach, Florida, for his wealthy clientele, was the 1926 Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn in Boca Raton. Over the decades, the waterfront resort and private club had been added onto in piecemeal fashion. Now, it is simply dubbed the Boca Raton, and, in anticipation of its centennial anniversary, commissioned hospitality authority Rockwell Group to renovate, expand, and cohere the property in the firm’s signature luxury and consideration of site.

The five-year project, led by partner Shawn Sullivan and co-studio leader, senior associate Merav Lahr, encompasses eight F&B venues and the main lobby, where a “law-office vibe,” Lahr notes, has been replaced with a monolithic quality via tumbled limestone floor slabs. The same material appears in the pool club, a new structure with arched windows and a teak ceiling that echo Mizner’s Mediterranean style. Rockwell’s scope also entailed the 244 guest rooms and suites inside an existing 27-story tower. Two floors were gutted to make way for one soaring three-bedroom townhouse, its nearly 4,000 square feet featuring plush custom furnishings suitable for today’s one-percenters.

AvroKO Turns to Warm Brutalism for the Jay Hotel

Warm brutalism may sound like a contradiction in terms, but it aptly describes the interiors of the 24-story, 360-key Jay hotel in San Francisco. AvroKO’s scheme embraces the heavy concrete forms and sawtooth glass facade of the 1988 building and pays homage to its architect, John Portman. His work differs from earlier brutalist projects, observes AvroKO cofounder and principal Greg Bradshaw: “There’s a more intimate scale and quality of softness.” His firm heightened those characteristics with its furniture specs, taking inspiration from San Francisco’s counter-culture movement and late local artist Ruth Asawa as creative muse.

An existing spiral staircase connected the entry to the third-floor lobby, but it felt cold and exposed. Bradshaw and team surrounded it with custom oak fins, creating a slatted cylinder that resembles a similar treatment Portman conceived in the ’60’s for his own home, and added oxblood-colored carpet to the steps; they also retained Arnaldo Pomodoro’s stunning original bronze sculpture that rises beside it. Timber screens reoccur to divide the generously sized guest rooms, where geometric rugs, relief art, and textured headboards speak the language of understated luxury.

7 Furnishings Weaving Tales Of Artisanal Wonder

Dive into these handcrafted furnishings and textiles from local artists, which hint at narratives that speak to their surroundings.

Discover Sleek Pieces Grounded in their Locales

Phases Collection by Suede Studio + Rocky Mountain Hardware

Suede Studio’s Phases bronze hardware collection, made in Hailey, Idaho, by Rocky Mountain Hardware.

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Kimono Gold Wallpaper by Porter Teleo

Kimono Gold handpainted wallpaper, made in Kansas City, Missouri, by Porter Teleo. 

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Baker Chandelier by Lostine

Baker chandelier with articulating ceramic shades and satin-brass and walnut details, made in Philadelphia by Lostine.

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Droplets Glass Lamps by Michiko Sakano Through Heller Gallery

Droplets blown-glass lamps, made in Brooklyn, New York, by Michiko Sakano, through Heller Gallery. 

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Slant Sofa by Cuff Studio

Slant sofa upholstered in Gypsy Rose wool-cotton velvet, made in Los Angeles by Cuff Studio.

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The Standard Record Console by Wrensilva

The Standard modern HiFi record console in walnut with woven-brass grille, made in San Diego by Wrensilva. 

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Branches Exo Side Table by James De Wulf Through Maison Gerard

Branches Exo side table in bronze and concrete, made in Los Angeles by James De Wulf, through Maison Gerard. 

Inside a Three-Story Oasis of Serenity In Naples, Florida

Spanning about the length of a Manhattan city block, the three-story MHK Architecture structure for this 150-key AC Hotels Naples 5th Avenue locale by DLR Group showcases luxurious materials with a casual touch—refined but not rarified. AC Hotels by Marriott properties are typically found in metropolitan locations. “This one, located steps from the Gulf of Mexico, marks a milestone, debuting as one of the first for the leisure-focused guest,” Marriott International VP of global design strategies Aliya Khan notes. “We merged biophilic concepts and architectural rigor,” says Valentina Castellon, who led the project with Rebecca Buchmeier; both are DLR principals and hospitality leaders.

The monolithic reception desk is green onyx, for example, while the white-oak wall behind it is carved to imitate the twined roots of the bald cypress trees found throughout the region. Similar forms of radial or sinuous ripples are found on rugs, timber ceilings, and in the winding configuration of the prefunction room’s conical pendant fixtures. In the lobby, columns clad in either sage porcelain tile or smoked mirrored glass act as a portal framing a poplar David LeCheminant sculpture, a sentinel of sorts that keeps watch over guests.