Dillingham_Construction

Dillingham Construction

Dillingham Construction

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Dillingham Construction International, Inc. (DCII) is an American engineering and construction services company, with North American headquarters in Ponca City, Oklahoma. It was previously based in Oahu, Hawaii then in San Francisco, and Pleasanton, California. The company was founded by Walter F. Dillingham in 1889, as the Oahu Railway and Land Company to build a railroad across the swamps of Oahu, Hawaii for large-scale sugar cane production.[1][2] It has also known as Dillingham Construction.

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History

In 1902, Walter F. Dillingham founded the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co..[1][2] In 1912, Walter F. Dillingham purchased 84 acres (34 ha) from the former Bernice P. Bishop Estate, which used the land for property development to create the neighborhood of Waikiki and many of its early related buildings and structures (including the Ala Wai Canal).[3]

Walter's son, Lowell Dillingham led the company in 1961, overseeing a merger a year earlier between the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co. and the Oahu Railway and Land Company, in order to form the public, Dillingham Corporation.[1] In 1959, the company began construction of one of its largest projects was the $30 million USD Ala Moana Center shopping mall.[4] In the 1960s the company started to expand internationally. Dillingham became a leading engineering and construction firm, building dams, airfields, high-rises, hotels and embassies around the world.

The company was sold to private investors in 1983, for $347 million USD.[5] Lowell Dillingham died a few years after the sale in 1987.[5] In 1988, the Dillingham Construction company moved the headquarters from San Francisco, to Pleasanton, California.[1][6]

Contraversy

The company had a series of issues in the county of San Francisco in the 1970s, and the county of Los Angeles in the early 2000s; with claims of over-billing, poor construction, onsite racism, and misrepresentation of minority involvement.[1] From 2000 until 2003, the company had a series of litigation and debt issues, which culminated into filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003.[7]

Notable projects

Beverly Wilshire Hotel in 1959
New Melones Dam

References

  1. [1]
    Said, Carolyn (February 6, 2003). "Construction giant files bankruptcy, plans to move / Pleasanton's Dillingham will shrink amid public works legal morass". SFGate. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  2. [2]
    Grant, Tina (2002). "Dillingham Construction Corporation". International Directory of Company Histories. St. James Press. pp. 151–154. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  3. [3]
    Cocke, Sophie (2013-05-20). "Ala Wai Canal: Hawaii's Biggest Mistake?". Honolulu Civil Beat. Retrieved 2024-03-24.
  4. [4]
    Gomes, Andrew (2006-06-30). "Can Ala Moana Center get any bigger?". Honolulu Advertiser. Archived from the original on July 18, 2006.
  5. [5]
    "Lowell Dillingham, 76, Dies; A Business Leader in Hawaii". The New York Times. August 17, 1987. pp. Section B, Page 6. ISSN 0362-4331.
  6. [6]
    "Company Overview of Dillingham Construction Corporation". Businessweek. 2012. Archived from the original on January 18, 2013. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
  7. [7]
    Rosta, Paul (February 10, 2003). "Dillingham Files for Bankruptcy". Engineering News–Record. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Archived from the original on September 8, 2010. Retrieved August 9, 2012.
  8. [8]
    Ertem, Mustafa Emre (2014-02-01). "Kutlutaş Dillingham Karşıyaka Tünelleri Açılış Töreni" (in Turkish). YouTube. Retrieved 2014-09-09.
  • Yardley, Paul T. "Millstones and Milestones: The Career of B. F. Dillingham" (1981, University of Hawaii Press).
  • Bobby N. Harmon (18 November 2008). "The Dirty Dillies of Dillingham Corporation". The Catbird Seat. Retrieved 9 August 2012.
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