Dillingham Construction Explained

Dillingham Construction International, Inc.
Former Name:	Oahu Railway and Land Company, Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co., Dilingham Construction
Industry:	Construction
Predecessors:	-->
Successors:	-->
Founder:	Walter F. Dillingham, Lowell Dillingham
Hq Location City:	Ponca City, Oklahoma
Hq Location Country:	United States
Areas Served:	-->
Key People:	Benjamin Dillingham
Owners:	-->

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] It has also known as Dillingham Construction.

History

In 1902, Walter F. Dillingham founded the Hawaiian Dredging and Construction Co.. In 1912, Walter F. Dillingham purchased 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).^[2]

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. In 1959, the company began construction of one of its largest projects was the $30 million USD Ala Moana Center shopping mall.^[3] 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.^[4] Lowell Dillingham died a few years after the sale in 1987. In 1988, the Dillingham Construction company moved the headquarters from San Francisco, to Pleasanton, California.^[5]

Controversy

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. From 2000 until 2003, the company had a series of litigation and debt issues, which culminated into filing for chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003.^[6]

Notable projects

• Pearl Harbor dry docks (1909), Oahu, Hawaii
• Beverly Wilshire Hotel (1928), Beverly Hills, California
• Griffith Park Observatory (1935) in Los Angeles, California
• Hilton Hawaiian Village (1955), Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
• Ala Moana Shopping Center (1966; now Ala Moana Center), Oahu, Hawaii
• 44 Montgomery (1962–1967), Financial District, San Francisco, California
• Harbor View Plaza (1968), Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii
• One Embarcadero Center (1971), Embarcadero, San Francisco, California^[7]
• Grand Hyatt San Francisco (1972), Embarcadero, San Francisco, California
• 50 California Street (1972), Financial District, San Francisco, California
• New Melones Dam (1979), near Jamestown, California
• BC Place (1983), Vancouver, Canada
• Bayraklı Tunnels (1999; formerly Karşıyaka Tunnels), Izmir Province, Turkey^[8]
• North East MRT Line Outram Park station and tunnelling works to HarbourFront station, Singapore
• US Embassy, Singapore
• US Embassy, Moscow
• Sakkara Air Base
• Tahoe Keys, California
• Los Angeles Emergency Operations Center, Los Angeles, California

References

• Yardley, Paul T. "Millstones and Milestones: The Career of B. F. Dillingham" (1981, University of Hawaii Press).
• News: Bobby N. Harmon . The Dirty Dillies of Dillingham Corporation . The Catbird Seat . 18 November 2008 . 9 August 2012.

Notes and References

1. News: Grant . Tina . 2002 . Dillingham Construction Corporation . 9 August 2012 . International Directory of Company Histories . St. James Press . 151–154.
2. Web site: Cocke . Sophie . 2013-05-20 . Ala Wai Canal: Hawaii's Biggest Mistake? . 2024-03-24 . Honolulu Civil Beat . en.
3. News: Gomes . Andrew . 2006-06-30 . Can Ala Moana Center get any bigger? . https://web.archive.org/web/20060718074912/https://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2006/Jun/30/ln/FP606300357.html . July 18, 2006 . Honolulu Advertiser.
4. News: August 17, 1987 . Lowell Dillingham, 76, Dies; A Business Leader in Hawaii . . Section B, Page 6 . 0362-4331.
5. News: 2012 . Company Overview of Dillingham Construction Corporation . dead . https://archive.today/20130118135413/http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=130875 . January 18, 2013 . 9 August 2012 . Businessweek.
6. Web site: Rosta . Paul . February 10, 2003 . Dillingham Files for Bankruptcy . https://web.archive.org/web/20100908074556/http://enr.construction.com/news/bizlabor/archives/030210b.asp . September 8, 2010 . August 9, 2012 . Engineering News–Record . The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc..
7. News: Said . Carolyn . February 6, 2003 . Construction giant files bankruptcy, plans to move / Pleasanton's Dillingham will shrink amid public works legal morass . August 9, 2012 . SFGate.
8. Web site: Ertem, Mustafa Emre . 2014-02-01 . Kutlutaş Dillingham Karşıyaka Tünelleri Açılış Töreni . 2014-09-09 . YouTube . Turkish.