M&A activity snapshot
Architecture M&A is running on succession and scale, not on demand. The AIA/Deltek Architecture Billings Index was 47.2 in August 2026, and AIA says the downturn now extends to nearly three and a half years. Even so, 30% of firm leaders reported completing or actively considering a merger or acquisition over the last year.
Few of those conversations become closed deals. In the same July 2026 survey, 4% of firms went through a merger or acquisition, and 10% actively considered being acquired. Another 29% completed or considered an internal ownership transition, so a sale to employees remains the main competitor to an outside buyer.
The supply of sellers is wide. There are more than 19,000 architecture firms in the United States, and about 75% have fewer than 10 employees. Scale is already shifting: from 2015 to 2023, the share of billings generated by larger firms rose 40% while small and midsize firms lost share.
This page covers architecture firms and urban and land-use planning practices. The 2022 NAICS manual puts building design in 541310, Architectural Services, and planning the development of land areas in 541320, Landscape Architectural Services. Civil site design and surveying have their own pages under the parent industry.
Who is buying
Integrated engineering and design firms. Stantec agreed to buy Page, a 1,400-person architecture and engineering firm, a deal it said makes it the second largest architecture firm in the US. In 2024, Colliers Engineering & Design bought Phase Zero Design, a commercial architecture, interior design, and branding firm with offices in Connecticut, Massachusetts and North Carolina.
Larger architecture firms. Firm leaders expect this to be the dominant pattern: 41% name architecture-to-architecture deals as the most common type ahead, against 15% for private equity. Corgan, whose clients span data centers, health and education, bought Duda|Paine Architects of Durham, North Carolina in September 2026 to enter the Research Triangle.
PE-backed A/E platforms. GHK Capital acquired CPL, a Rochester, NY architecture, engineering and consulting firm with over 500 employees across 25 offices. GHK plans an active M&A program aimed at building a national-scale firm under a unified CPL banner.
Interiors and workplace design firms. Ware Malcomb took on CBRE's U.S. Design Collective team, a carve-out of interior design, architecture, MEP and structural specialists. Carve-outs like this add workplace clients and engineering staff in one step.
What buyers look for
Institutional and healthcare depth. Architecture firms received 55% of their billings from institutional projects in 2023. Zweig Group reports that on the architectural side, institutional and healthcare related projects have remained consistent contributors to higher margins. CPL's buyer singled out its healthcare, education, and civic infrastructure end-markets.
Data-center and advanced-manufacturing credentials. Stantec named advanced manufacturing, data centers, and healthcare as the growth areas behind the Page deal. Capstone reports that data center construction spending has nearly doubled each year since 2021, while overall construction spending stalled.
Licensed architects who will stay. Licensing is the scarce input. The U.S. had just over 123,000 architects in 2025, and 14% were over 65 while just 3% were under 30. Buyers price the retirement risk of the principals who stamp drawings.
New geography or a new sector. Among firms that did or weighed a deal, 53% rated adding new markets or a broader area as very important. Corgan's Duda|Paine deal added office and higher education strength in a new state.
What makes a strong company
An architecture or planning firm that draws competing buyers typically has:
- A recognized specialty, such as healthcare, higher education, K-12 or mission-critical work, with repeat institutional clients.
- Several licensed architects below the founding generation, holding stamps in the states where the firm works.
- An ownership structure that already complies with each state's licensed-ownership rules.
- Signed fee backlog that covers the next several quarters, not only pursuits and inquiries.
- Net service revenue reported separately from consultant pass-through, so margins are comparable.
- No single client or developer large enough to sink a year if lost.
Valuation and deal structure
No public data series isolates architecture-only multiples, so the closest proxies are AEC-wide. Zweig Group's 2025 survey put the median AEC firm's value/EBITDA at 4.28 and value/NSR at 0.63. Capstone Partners reports that disclosed, larger AEC deals averaged 13.2x EV/EBITDA in 2025, up from 11.1x in 2024.
Architecture firms tend to sit below engineering firms in those ranges, and the backlog gap explains why. Capstone notes that 48% of engineering firms report a workload pipeline of one or more years, while architecture billings have declined for nearly three and a half years. Buyers pay less for revenue that tracks private development cycles.
Ownership law shapes structure. Maryland requires two-thirds of the partners, directors, or members to be licensed in architecture, engineering or landscape architecture. California does not restrict general stock corporation ownership, but a firm may advertise architectural services only if a licensee is in management control. A non-architect buyer must solve these rules state by state.
Sellers also weigh price against internal succession. Among firms that did or weighed a deal, 50% rated letting owners sell the firm or realize their investment as very important. To see where your own numbers sit, use the valuation tool.
Outlook
Expect more deals at modest prices through 2027. 65% of firm leaders believe architecture M&A will increase over the next 3-5 years, and just 2% expect a decrease. Owners expect to sell, too: 23% think their firm is likely to be acquired or merge within 3-5 years.
Near-term demand is the risk. Only 25% of firm leaders expected billings to increase in the fourth quarter, and Northeast billings hit their lowest level since 2020. A weak market pushes small firms toward a sale, while buyers favor specialists in healthcare, education and data centers that hold up through it.
Own an architecture or planning firm and want a sense of what buyers pay? Run the valuation tool. For how buyers build target lists in fragmented professions like this one, see how to build an M&A target list. For the wider sector, see Engineering & Environmental Services M&A.