Some years, the proverbial ship comes in, and projects that languished on the horizon finally land all at once. That was the case in 2018 for Los Angeles–based Marmol Radziner, which earned the top spot in business in this year’s Architect 50.
The 160-person firm enjoyed a 34% increase in net revenue over 2017, and boasted the highest net-revenue-per-employee figure of all the survey participants. “Some of it truly is timing,” says managing partner Leo Marmol, FAIA. “Various projects fell into place by chance at the same time last year.”
Like most firms, “we see fluctuation in annual revenues because of the normal ebb and flow of the profession,” Marmol adds, but the firm’s growth “speaks to the unique nature of our office. We have a whole variety of revenue streams from a business perspective.”
Founded in 1989 as a design-build firm with an emphasis as a “master builder,” Marmol Radziner touts itself as a single-source shop offering everything from architectural drawings and construction documents to prefab, custom cabinetry, fixtures, and furniture. Employees work across multidisciplinary teams of architects, landscape designers, interior designers, furniture designers, and construction crews. Projects in 2018 included a 64-story mixed-use tower in downtown Los Angeles (still in progress), a Four Seasons resort in Puerto Rico, and multiple private houses. “We had a number of residential construction projects where we were both architect and builder and some were very large scale,” says design partner Ron Radziner, FAIA, including a 13,000-square-foot wood-and-brick residence in Pacific Palisades, Calif., completed early this year. Tucked into a canyon along a creek with a landscape of native oaks, the house represents the firm’s signature Modernist-meets-landscape style.
As a sign of its expanding reach, Marmol Radziner opened a New York office in 2018 to service a growing number of East Coast residential and commercial clients, including restaurants for Sushi Nozawa Group, boutiques for Vince and Oliver Peoples, and the New York corporate headquarters for Italian eyewear company Luxottica. “We have always had a strong emphasis on office management,” Marmol says. “We have a COO that heads up the financial management structure and he has a talented and committed team that keeps all of the accounting managed very smoothly.”
Top 50 Firms in Business
| Rank | Organization | Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Marmol Radziner | 100.0 |
| 2 | EHDD | 99.7 |
| 3 | Duda|Paine Architects | 98.5 |
| 4 | WRNS Studio | 97.3 |
| 5 | Butler Armsden Architects | 96.1 |
| 6 | Works Progress Architecture | 93.6 |
| 7 | HDR Architecture | 91.8 |
| 8 | Clark Nexsen | 91.7 |
| 9 | ELS Architecture and Urban Design | 91.4 |
| 10 | Hastings | 88.9 |
| 11 | Mahlum | 88.3 |
| 12 | Blair + Mui Dowd Architects | 87.7 |
| 13 | RBB Architects | 87.4 |
| 14 | CO Architects | 87.0 |
| 15 | Leddy Maytum Stacy Architects | 86.8 |
| 16 | Steinberg Hart | 86.7 |
| 16 | Carrier Johnson + Culture | 86.7 |
| 18 | Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture | 86.1 |
| 18 | Bruner/Cott & Associates | 86.1 |
| 18 | PBK | 86.1 |
| 21 | Page | 84.5 |
| 22 | Gensler | 84.4 |
| 22 | Ayers Saint Gross | 84.4 |
| 24 | Mark Cavagnero Associates | 84.2 |
| 25 | David Baker Architects | 84.1 |
| 26 | Goettsch Partners | 83.9 |
| 27 | Touloukian Touloukian | 83.6 |
| 28 | Flansburgh Architects | 83.2 |
| 29 | The Miller Hull Partnership | 82.7 |
| 29 | ZGF Architects | 82.7 |
| 31 | Ann Beha | 82.0 |
| 32 | Olson Kundig | 81.8 |
| 32 | SmithGroup | 81.8 |
| 32 | HOK | 81.8 |
| 35 | Hord Coplan Macht | 81.5 |
| 36 | Leers Weinzapfel | 80.5 |
| 36 | Kobi Karp | 80.5 |
| 38 | Spector Group | 80.0 |
| 39 | Opsis Architecture | 79.8 |
| 39 | HMC Architects | 79.8 |
| 41 | EYP | 79.7 |
| 42 | BAR Architects | 79.4 |
| 43 | HKS | 79.1 |
| 43 | Kirksey | 79.1 |
| 45 | Mithun | 78.3 |
| 46 | HGA | 77.9 |
| 47 | Skidmore, Owings & Merrill | 77.6 |
| 47 | Payette | 77.6 |
| 49 | Studios Architecture | 77.3 |
| 50 | LPA | 76.8 |
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