About the Book
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 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.
Review :
Enterprise and Society Advance Access published July 29, 2013
Michael R. Adamson. A Better Way to Build: A History of the Pankow Companies. West Lafayette, IN: Purdue University Press, 2013. xxv + 470 pp. ISBN 978-1-55753-634-1, $45.00 (hardback).
It is refreshing to come across a book about an American builder for a change. Much has been written over the years about the professional side of the design and construction industry, the architects and engineers, but the men and women who transform their designs into reality have been largely ignored. Not only is this a book about Charles Pankow's life and career and the companies he founded but
it also focuses on his mission to change the way that buildings were designed and built.
Pankow was born in 1923 and graduated in 1947, after military service, from Purdue University with a degree in civil engineering. After two years with a structural engineering firm, he moved briefly in 1950 to the Austin Company and then joined the Peter Kiewit Sons company a year later, one of the largest of America's contractors to the
present day. His short stay with Austin may well have influenced his future approach to design and construction. Austin was founded in 1904 and, by the time Pankow joined them, had refined its business model to become the leading most respected firm in the country offering owners design-build services.
The 1950s and 1960s, the period during which he started his career and established his own company, was a turbulent period in the construction business. Adjustment to the postwar economy came quickly and with it came a renewed belligerency by the unions, which even the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act was not able to tame. This was followed
by an uptick in inflation in the 1960s, which was particularly acute in construction. By 1969, construction prices had increased 81 percent faster since 1949 than the consumer price index. All these increases were passed along to the owners who eventually r
"Charlie Pankow had an important impact on late-twentieth-century building development. His companies created a powerful niche market that kept his clients happy and the enterprise profitable. Pankow's clients weren't vainglorious developers seeking to create monuments for themselves. They wanted handsome, lasting buildings, delivered on time and at budget. And that Pankow accomplished time and again. Moreover, Pankow became as much an innovator in the systemic use of concrete as a building material as Gustave Eiffel had been in the late nineteenth century with cast iron."
--Timothy Tosta, Partner, "McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP""
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"Charles Pankow was an innovator who embraced the design-build concept, and he served as a champion of the approach while restoring the master builder to the commercial building site. He believed the contractor needed the ability to integrate cost- and time-saving construction methods. This book describes the 'Pankow Way, ' a collaborative approach in which the contractor works effectively with the architects, engineers, and subcontractors to meet owners' expectations. It is an interesting history of a company and the man who created a unique business culture, and I recommend it as a great read for engineers, architects, contractors, and business people."
--Patrick J. Natale, Executive Director, "American Society of Civil Engineers"
"In the history of construction in the second half of the twentieth century, Charles Pankow stands out as the man who led the design-build revolution. Michael Adamson develops a fascinating portrait of a community leader, philanthropist, creative businessman, perceptive art collector, and major figure in the history of civil engineering. Read this book to learn about the visionary after whom the American Society of Civil Engineers recently named its prestigious competition in architectural engineering--and about the 'renaissance man' behind the vision."
--Jeffrey S. Russell, Professor of C
