A Better Way to Build: A History of the Pankow Companies - Hardcover

Adamson, Michael R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1557536341 ISBN 13: 9781557536341

Publisher: Purdue University Press, 2013

Synopsis

While architects have been the subject of many scholarly studies, we know very little about the companies that built the structures they designed. This book is a study in business history as well as civil engineering and construction management. It details the contributions that Charles J. Pankow, a 1947 graduate of Purdue University, and his firm have made as builders of large, often concrete, commercial structures since the company’s foundation in 1963. In particular, it uses selected projects as case studies to analyse and explain how the company innovated at the project level.

The company has been recognised as a pioneer in “design-build,” a methodology that involves the construction company in the development of structures and substitutes negotiated contracts for the bidding of architects’ plans. The Pankow companies also developed automated construction technologies that helped keep projects on time and within budget. The book includes dozens of photographs of buildings under construction from the company’s archive and other sources. At the same time, the author analyses and evaluates the strategic decision making of the firm through 2004, the year in which the founder died.

While Charles Pankow figures prominently in the narrative, the book also describes how others within the firm adapted the business so that the company could survive a commercial market that changed significantly as a result of the recession of the 1990s. Extending beyond the scope of most business biographies, this book is a study in industry innovation and the power of corporate culture, as well as the story of one particular company and the individuals who created it.

Key Features:

• There are many books about architects, but very few about twentieth-century “makers.”
• Tells the story behind many iconic buildings, especially in the western half of the US.
• Charles Pankow was a pioneer in concrete construction and the “design-build” system.

About this title

About the Author

Michael R. Adamson, PhD (UC Santa Barbara, 2000), has taught history at a number of institutions, most recently at California State University, and is an independent historical consultant.

Arthur J. Fox Jr. (“Art Fox”) is Editor Emeritus of Engineering News Record, past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, and the recipient of many other awards and recognitions. He has been a leading commenter on the engineering and construction industries for over sixty years.

Edition details

• Publisher: Purdue University Press
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1557536341
• ISBN 13: 9781557536341
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 460