Architect Salary in Illinois 2026,
$81,780 Median | BLS Data by City

Illinois architects earn a median $81,780 a year, $39.32 an hour, per BLS OEWS May 2025, with the middle half between $65,110 and $105,090 and a full range of $59,890 to $130,670. That is 17.6% below the $99,280 national median, which is unusual for a state containing a market the size of Chicago.

Springfield at $97,600, then Bloomington at $82,250, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $81,790, Champaign-Urbana at $81,110 and Rockford at $81,010. Everything outside Springfield sits within about twelve hundred dollars, so the Illinois metro table for architects is remarkably flat once the state capital is set aside.

Through the Board of Architecture at the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. Illinois follows the standard NCARB route: a degree from a NAAB-accredited programme, completion of the Architectural Experience Program hours under a licensed architect, and passing all divisions of the Architect Registration Examination. Illinois also protects the title, so calling yourself an architect before registration is a violation, not just a courtesy question.

Supply. Illinois has 22% more architects per worker than the US average, concentrated almost entirely in Chicago, and the city's schools and firms keep replenishing that pool. A deep, competitive labour market with a project pipeline weighted toward renovation and adaptive reuse rather than large new-build commercial work produces exactly this: high employment, moderate pay, and a Chicago metro median of $81,790 that barely clears the state figure.

Illinois grants registration to architects licensed elsewhere who hold an NCARB Certificate, which is the practical route for anyone moving in from another state. Without the certificate, IDFPR evaluates education, experience and examination history individually, which is slower. Because Illinois protects the title, an architect relocating here cannot practise or advertise as an architect until Illinois registration is actually issued.

Because Chicago sets the market and the downstate metros mostly staff branch offices or institutional clients who benchmark against it. Bloomington at $82,250, Chicago-Naperville-Elgin at $81,790, Champaign-Urbana at $81,110 and Rockford at $81,010 are separated by about twelve hundred dollars in total. Springfield's $97,600 is the exception because state government facilities work pays on a public schedule that is not benchmarked to design-firm rates at all.

It mixes two very different labour markets under one number. Pre-licensure designers logging AXP hours and registered architects stamping drawings both sit in SOC 17-1011, and in a state as oversupplied as Illinois the pre-licensure population is large. The $65,110 twenty-fifth percentile is realistically a designer figure, not a licensed one, and reading the state median as 'what a licensed Illinois architect earns' understates the licensed tier.

Ownership of delivery and then of the firm. The step from $81,780 to the state 75th percentile of $105,090 is project architect responsibility — consultants, construction administration and client contact. The step from there to the 90th percentile of $130,670 is almost entirely equity: in Illinois's crowded market, salaried practice tends to plateau, and principals earn distributions that a salaried associate cannot reach.