Charles Linn, FAIA The editors of Architectural Record start planning our Innovation Conference more than a year in advance. We attend conferences, exhibitions and lectures; read everything in sight; and visit offices across the country and world to get a firsthand look at the kind of work people are doing. Through our research, we’ve come to understand that environmental pressures and rapid technological advancements are changing the way we design and build. Because of this, it would have been a mistake to tie the conference to a single subject. So instead, we gave it a name that describes this

  Each year RECORD publishes the Top 150 Architecture Firms list, based on information collected by its sister publication, Engineering News-Record, for its Top 500 Design Firms Sourcebook. According to the latest survey, 2006 was a good year for architects, who reported a combined $8 billion in revenues. (Incidentally, there was a five-way tie for the 147th spot, so 151 are listed.) The 15 firms at the top of the list earned 37 percent of that, about $3 billion. To put those figures in context, it is helpful to know that architects’ offices with more than 100 seats make up

Architecture critics nearly always cite a handful of unbuilt skyscrapers as the best of the type, neglecting the vast majority of completed ones entirely.