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Bad news continues to roll in for the architecture industry as June marked the third straight month of declines in the American Institute of Architects’ Architecture Billings Index.

The ABI, an that reflects a nine- to 12-month lag time between architecture billings and construction spending, was 46.3 at the end of June. Any score below 50 marks a decline from the month previous.

The three month decline comes on the heels of five straight months of modest improvements that started in late 2010.

鈥淭his seems to be a case of not thinking it can get any worse 鈥� and it does,鈥� said AIA chief economist Kermit Baker in a statement accompanying the new data.

The data seems to reflect an interesting period in the economy where public dollars for construction projects have dried up and the private sector still hasn’t revived. The lowest ABI was for institutional projects, which recorded a score of 45.9, while multifamily residential (49.6) and commercial/industrial (50) remained unchanged from a month previous.

The western U.S. outpaced the rest of the country by reporting a score of 51.7. The number is significant in that the west has trailed the rest of the country the entire first half of 2011. Then Northeast (47.5) and the South (47.3) reported slight drops from a month previous, while the Midwest (44.6) showed the most significant drop.