SIC code for architects: 8712, and NAICS 541310 for architecture

This page is for architects and office managers filling in an industry code for professional liability insurance, a bank, a state or city vendor registration or SAM.gov, and for sellers building lists of architecture firms.

The SIC code: 8712

SIC 8712, Architectural Services, sits in Major Group 87, Engineering, Accounting, Research, Management, and Related Services. The 1987 manual defines it in one line: establishments "primarily engaged in providing professional architectural services." The Census concordance maps it to a single NAICS code, 541310, and 541310 draws on no other SIC code, so the conversion is exact in both directions.

Two cautions. Six- and eight-digit "SIC codes" such as 8712-02 come from commercial list vendors, not the official manual, which stops at four digits. And the SEC's own SIC list has no 8712: public architecture and engineering firms file under 8711, Services-Engineering Services, or elsewhere.

The NAICS codes for architecture and design

The 541310 definition is about knowledge, not tools: the Census Bureau describes architects as applying "knowledge of design, construction procedures, zoning regulations, building codes, and building materials." Its index adds architectural construction specifications consulting.

How to choose: the edge cases

The design-build row comes straight from the Census cross-references: establishments doing "both the design and construction of buildings" or "managing construction projects" are classified in construction by type of project. See the NAICS code for general contractors for those codes. Landscape firms that install should check the landscaping code page.

A firm that does architecture and engineering under one roof should take the code for the larger fee base and list the other as secondary. On federal bids that matters, as the spending figures below show.

How many architecture firms there are

County Business Patterns 2023 counts 22,805 architecture establishments with 189,468 employees and $18.7 billion in annual payroll, about $98,720 per employee and 8.3 employees per establishment (our calculations).

The top states are California (3,723 establishments), New York (2,099), Florida (1,741), Texas (1,641), Illinois (944), Colorado (844), Massachusetts (728) and Washington (723). Landscape architecture (541320) is smaller: 5,176 establishments averaging 5.6 employees. CBP counts offices with paid employees, so a firm with three studios counts three times and sole practitioners with no staff aren't counted. It uses NAICS 2017 codes; none of these changed in 2022.

SBA size standards and how the government buys design

From SBA's table effective 17 March 2023, still current in the eCFR on 28 October 2026, in average annual receipts: 541310 is $12.5 million, 541320 and 541410 are $9.0 million, 541340 is $9.0 million and 541330 is $25.5 million.

Federal design is bought differently from almost everything else. Under FAR subpart 36.6, which implements 40 U.S.C. 1101 and following, agencies negotiate architect-engineer contracts "on the basis of demonstrated competence and qualifications," at fair and reasonable prices. The selection criteria cover qualifications, specialized experience, capacity, past performance and location; price isn't among them, and the fee is negotiated with the top-ranked firm. Firms file Standard Form 330 to be considered, and FAR 15.404-4 caps the fee for designs, plans, drawings and specifications on public works or utilities at 6% of the estimated construction cost.

Federal contract obligations from USAspending.gov:

The largest buyers under 541310 in fiscal 2025 were the Department of Defense ($231.6 million), GSA ($153.6 million), Veterans Affairs ($83.0 million) and State ($80.1 million). With 70 times as much obligated under 541330, and one code per solicitation, an architecture firm with engineers on staff should list 541330 too.

Where the code is used, and what a wrong one costs

• Insurers and lenders. They use the code to find your peer group, and architecture, engineering and design-build carry different risks, so give the code that matches your fees.
• Tax returns. Schedule C and Form 1120 use 541310 for architectural services and 541320 for landscape architecture.
• Federal and state bids. A firm registered only as 541310 won't appear when a contracting officer searches 541330 for A-E firms.

Finding architecture firms by code

Architecture firms are almost all private, and the SEC has no architecture code. Public firms that do architecture alongside engineering file under SIC 8711 or elsewhere:

For the private firms, state architecture licensing boards publish license lookups, and the USAspending recipient search filtered to 541310 names firms that won federal design work. Bebop finds firms from a description, such as healthcare architecture practices with 20 to 100 employees in the Midwest.

Worked example

Illustrative example. The firm and its figures are invented; the rules are FAR's and SBA's.

Meridian Architecture (meridian.example) has 14 employees. Last year it earned $2.1 million from building design, $0.4 million from interiors and $0.2 million from landscape plans: $2.7 million in all.

1. Codes. Building design is 77.8% of revenue, so the primary code is 541310 (SIC 8712), with 541410 and 541320 as secondary codes.
2. Size. Five-year average receipts of $2.3 million are well under the $12.5 million standard.
3. A federal clinic. Veterans Affairs plans a clinic with an estimated construction cost of $12.0 million. Meridian files its SF 330; if it's ranked first, the design fee it negotiates can't exceed 6% of $12.0 million, or $720,000.

Next step: if you also build what you design, see the codes on the NAICS code for general contractors page.