Dillingham Construction International, Inc. (DCII) is an American engineering and construction services company, with North American headquarters in

Ponca City, Oklahoma Ponca City () is a city in Kay County, Oklahoma, Kay County in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. The city was named after the Ponca tribe. Ponca City had a population of 24,424 in the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, down from 25,387 at the tim ...

. It was previously based in Oahu, Hawaii then in San Francisco, and

Pleasanton, California Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. Located in the Amador Valley, it is an upscale suburb in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area. The population was 79,871 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 cens ...

. The company was founded by Walter F. Dillingham in 1889, as the

Oahu Railway and Land Company The Oahu Railway and Land Company, or OR&L, was a narrow gauge common carrier railway that served much of the Hawaiian island of Oahu, and was the largest narrow gauge class one common carrier in the U.S, until its dissolution in 1947. Origin T ...

to build a railroad across the swamps of

Oahu, Hawaii Oahu (, , sometimes written Oahu) is the third-largest and most populated island of the Hawaiian Islands and of the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state capital, Honolulu, is on Oahu's southeast coast. The island of Oahu and the uninhabited Northw ...

for large-scale sugar cane production. It is 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 The Ala Wai Canal is an artificial waterway in Honolulu, Hawaii which serves as the northern boundary of the tourist district of Waikiki. It was created in 1928 to drain the Paddy field, rice paddies and Swamp, swamps which would eventually becom ...

). 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 In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

, Dillingham Corporation. In 1959, the company began construction of one of its largest projects was the $30 million USD

Ala Moana Center The Ala Moana Center, commonly known simply as Ala Moana, is a large open-air shopping mall in the Ala Moana, Honolulu, Ala Moana neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. Owned by Brookfield Properties, Ala Moana is the List of largest shopping malls i ...

shopping mall. 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. 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.

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 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

in 2003.

Notable projects

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

dry docks (1909), Oahu, Hawaii *

Beverly Wilshire Hotel The Beverly Wilshire, A Four Seasons Hotel, commonly known as the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, is a historic luxury hotel in Beverly Hills, California. Located at the intersection of Wilshire Boulevard and Rodeo Drive, it was completed in 1928. It ha ...

(1928),

Beverly Hills Beverly Hills is a city located in Los Angeles County, California, United States. A notable and historic suburb of Los Angeles, it is located just southwest of the Hollywood Hills, approximately northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Beverly Hil ...

, California *

Griffith Park Observatory Griffith Observatory is an observatory in Los Angeles, California, on the south-facing slope of Mount Hollywood in Griffith Park. It commands a view of the Los Angeles Basin including Downtown Los Angeles to the southeast, Hollywood to the sout ...

(1935) in Los Angeles, California *

Hilton Hawaiian Village The Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort is a resort hotel on Waikiki, Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. The resort first opened in 1955, and since has grown to become the largest in the Hilton Hotels & Resorts, Hilton chain of hotel ...

(1955), Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii * Ala Moana Shopping Center (1966; now Ala Moana Center), Oahu, Hawaii *

44 Montgomery 44 Montgomery is a 43-story, office skyscraper in the heart of San Francisco's Financial District. Groundbreaking was in the spring of 1964. When completed in 1967, it was the tallest building west of Dallas, surpassed by 555 California Stree ...

(1962–1967),

Financial District A financial district is usually a central area in a city where financial services firms such as banks, insurance companies, and other related finance corporations have their headquarters offices. In major cities, financial districts often host ...

, San Francisco, California *

Harbor View Plaza The Harbor View Plaza building is a residential condominium building in the Waikiki precinct of Honolulu, Hawai'i. It was constructed from c. 1965–1968, designed by architect Edwin L. Bauer in a blend of Tropical Modern and Postmodern archi ...

(1968), Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii * One Embarcadero Center (1971), Embarcadero, San Francisco, California *

Grand Hyatt San Francisco The Grand Hyatt San Francisco is a skyscraper hotel located half a block north of Union Square in San Francisco, California. The 36-storey, 660 room tower was completed in 1972, as the Hyatt on Union Square and renamed the Grand Hyatt San Fra ...

(1972), Embarcadero, San Francisco, California *

50 California Street 50 California Street (also known as the Union Bank Building) is a , 37- story office tower completed in 1972 at the foot of California Street in the Financial District of San Francisco, California. There is a plaza located at the base of the bu ...

(1972), Financial District, San Francisco, California *

New Melones Dam New Melones Dam is an earth and rock filled embankment dam on the Stanislaus River, about west of Jamestown, California, United States, on the border of Calaveras County and Tuolumne County. The water impounded by the dam forms New Melone ...

(1979), near Jamestown, California *

BC Place BC Place is a multi-purpose stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Located at the north side of False Creek, it is owned and operated by the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), a Crown corporation of the province. The venue is currently ...

(1983), Vancouver, Canada *

Bayraklı Tunnels Bayraklı Tunnels (), formerly Karşıyaka Tunnels, are two road tunnel, motorway tunnels in series located on the İzmir's northern beltway, motorway , in Bayraklı district between Karşıyaka and Bornova of İzmir Province, Aegean Region, wes ...

(1999; formerly Karşıyaka Tunnels), Izmir Province, Turkey *

North East MRT Line The North East Line (NEL) is a high-capacity Mass Rapid Transit (Singapore), Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line in Singapore. Operated by SBS Transit, the line is the MRT's shortest. It runs from HarbourFront MRT station, HarbourFront station in ...

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). *

External links

* {{authority control 1880 establishments in Hawaii American companies established in 1880 Companies based in Hawaii Companies based in Oklahoma Companies based in Pleasanton, California Construction and civil engineering companies of the United States Construction and civil engineering companies established in 1880 Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2003