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

Chapter 6: Promoting Design-Build and Funding Concrete Construction Research

253 Chapter 6 Promoting Design-Build and Funding Concrete Construction Research This chapter steps aside from the chronological framework of the narrative to consider the diffusion of design-build and the role that Charlie Pankow and his firm played in spreading the practice. As design-build and certain concrete construction techniques were intertwined in Charlie Pankow’s construction program, efforts by the firm to promote the former entailed advocating the use of precasting, slipforming, and related techniques. The Pankow firm stood apart from contractors as an underwriter of primary research, and so this chapter also examines its contribution to the development of a structural framing system thatpromisedtoimprovetheabilityofbuildingstosurviveseismiceventsintact. CharliePankowmaintainedaprofessionalandproprietaryinterestinincorporatingdesign -buildandadvancesinconcreteconstructionintoengineeringeducationandresearch .Thoughmuchofthecompany’sdesign-buildandconcrete construction know-how was developed at the building site, Pankow understood that the engineers and construction managers whom he recruited from universitystoodabetterchanceofmeetinghisexpectationsinthefieldiftheypossessed a solid technical foundation, especially if it dovetailed with the ways in which he conducted business. The chapter’s first section examines Pankow’s ongoing interest in Purdue engineering and shows how his efforts promoted the diffusion of design-build, in particular. Throughouttheircareersasbuilders,CharliePankowandothersinthefirm promoteddesign-buildandadvancesinconcreteconstructionfrompositionsof leadership in national associations and societies, the American Concrete Insti- CHAPTER 6 254 tute (ACI) in particular. The Southern California chapter that Pankow helped to found in 1957 was the first local chapter established within the national society. In 1980 he served as ACI president. Dean Stephan and Tom Verti subsequently led the organization. All three men used the monthly “President’s memo” and othermeansthatthepositionofferedthemtorecommendwhattheybelievedto be better ways to build concrete commercial structures. Charlie Pankow’s advocacy of design-build culminated in his playing a direct role, along with Stephan and Rik Kunnath, in founding the Design-Build Institute of America (DBIA).1 As a glance at the notes to this book would suggest, Charlie Pankow and others in the firm, Dean Stephan in particular, published articles that promoted design-build and automated concrete construction techniques. Signed essays appeared in trade journals such as Concrete Construction and Journal of the American Concrete Institute. Articles that detailed the construction of specific projects appeared in Engineering News-Record, Urban Land, and other publications. Pankow and Stephan also contributed chapters on on-site precasting and slipform construction to successive editions of the Concrete Construction Handbook.2 In this way, the medium-sized contractor reached a wider audience. No doubt, these efforts ultimately benefited the bottom line of the firm. At the same time, the choice of Pankow and others in the firm to publish articles in these outlets rather than simply write copy for proprietary brochures and other advertising media suggests that they had a professional interest, too, in spreading their ideas among colleagues, and not just pitching them to potential clients. Of course, convincing other contractors of the value of Charlie Pankow’s construction program in professional venues might increase its acceptability in the marketplace, and therefore benefit the company’s bottom line, too. At the same time, promoting ideas on contracting might just as easily increase competition. It would appear that Charlie Pankow and others in the firm calculated that it would be better to enlarge the size of the market for their favored practices than do business strictly on a proprietary basis. Charlie Pankow’s Interest in Engineering Education The technical training that Dean Browning, Bob Law, Joe Sanders and others recruited into the Pankow firm during the 1970s received placed far more emphasis on theory and science than it did when Charlie Pankow studied at Purdue. A seismic shift in engineering education followed in the wake of the reorientation of research that occurred with increased federal fund- PROMOTING DESIGN-BUILD AND FUNDING RESEARCH 255 ing of basic scientific research that began during World War II and accelerated with the launching of Sputnik in October 1957. As Bruce Seely argues, the war exposed engineers’ inability to contribute to advanced engineering projects, which had implications for both their research and teaching. To compete successfully for their share of the millions of dollars appropriated by Congress for research that addressed the needs of the national security state during the Cold War, academic engineers and their students pursuing advanced degrees anchored their proposals in science. In this context, it was more likely, too, that the doctoral candidate who wished to pursue a career in academia would accept an assistant professorship without first gaining practical experience. The development of the computer also facilitated the shift in emphasis in research by enabling hypotheses...