Top 250 Architecture Firms’ 2009 revenue fell dramatically, while foreign work was stable.

If Rip Van Winkle, AIA, awoke today with no knowledge of the near collapse of the economy last year, and he decided to start catching up on news of the profession by checking architectural record’s Top 250 Firms list, he might be skeptical of the rumors that we’re in one.

What a ride it’s been. The total revenue of Architectural Record's Top 150 Architecture Firms surged in 2007, even as the AIA’s Architectural Billings Index (ABI) for March dropped to 39.7, its lowest level since the institute began tracking architects’ invoices in 1995.