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

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 9781-55753-634-1, $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