The Daily Reporter | A History of Construction | A time of innocence and revolution

A time of innocence and revolution

The industry rides the wave of the 1950s and ‘60s

By Dick Snow

The next two decades of construction in the Badger State began rather quietly and closed with big-time, revolutionary changes to the industry.

There were ample amounts of personnel to handle the tremendous amount of expansion work resulting from the dearth of private residential and commercial construction during the ‘40s.

It was during the ‘50s, for instance, that the city of Milwaukee built its Arena for sports and entertainment, and Milwaukee County built its Stadium for American Association Baseball. The Arena, of course, was to be the major facility for sports, replacing the Auditorium, and the stadium replaced old Borchert Field, right in the path of the first freeway.

There was a definite emphasis on modernizing, expanding and adding to infrastructure during the early ‘50s, and all work was bid work.

And, in the late ‘50s, construction in Wisconsin and elsewhere began ever so slightly to feel the impact of government legislation and regulations, which would seriously change methods of doing business for contractors. Among those changes were:

More stringent rules for accounting, leading to major increases in financial reporting.

Legislation and regulatory agencies perpetrating additional taxation on the industry.

Specifications becoming tighter.

More lawyers entering the professional ranks by necessity.

Bankers requiring more disclosure.

Rising surety standards.

Growing associations

During this evolutionary period, because the construction industry is, by nature, fragmented, existing trade associations expanded their scope, and new trade associations found their way into the mix.

It should be of some historic note that these associations were generally headed by experts in labor relations and not given to much public relations or educational activity. These decades caused a considerable shift in the priorities of the associations, and they broadened their overall programming.

This was, though, a period when changes in the labor makeup of the industry began to take place.

In the face of organized labor’s more aggressive collective bargaining, which included skyrocketing wage settlements and tighter work restrictions, many contractors opted out of the formalized labor agreements and started working “merit” or “open shop.”

This, too, was the period when the Associated Builders and Contractors began to develop recruitment and labor training as well as management education programming.

Major components of construction work, including virtually all residential construction and some subcontracting/ specialty work, went nonunion. This had an effect on association activity.

As an example, during the early ‘50s, the Collective Bargaining Committee of the Associated General Contractors required a ballroom-sized venue in which to meet. The Open Shop Committee met “behind the potted palms,” as one industry observer put it.

Today, the renamed Union Contractors Committee and Open Shop Committee both meet in less-than-ballroom-sized venues.

You say you want a revolution...

The 1960s did bring about some revolutionary changes in construction contracting:

Congress, in its infinite wisdom, created the Occupational Safety & Health Act and the now-familiar OSHA agency. Industry groups eventually took it upon themselves to educate OSHA, but the agency began with a series of citations for standards that made little or no sense. Nonetheless, it marked the beginning of the “Big Brother is Watching” era for construction.

The so-called environmental lobby also sought and received legislation creating the Environmental Protection Agency and other environmental offices and commissions. This is also known, in some circles, as the “Swing and Sway with EPA” period. It took the industry 20 more years to figure out, though, that this development actually provided some new construction money and marketing opportunities.

A new way to work

Perhaps the biggest change in the ‘60s was in project delivery, brought about by owner/user demand. It was a period of great economic inflation, and organizations, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Business Roundtable began looking over the shoulders of contractors when they built their plants and office buildings.

"Find new ways of getting the job (construction) done," Roger Blough, of United States Steel and the Roundtable’s first director, told the contracting industry.

The result was collective bargaining became quieter and more responsible, and the industry invented new project delivery systems.

Arguably, it was felt that “turnkey” construction, where all elements of construction were packaged, would work for private and governmental work. GEF I and GEF II in Madison, and Milwaukee’s Housing for the Elderly Towers were turnkey projects.

Some contracting firms, headed by civil engineering types, tired of union contractual obligations and decided they could get better, more profitable work by supervising the jobs rather than actually performing the work. They were able to sell the “construction management” process to owners/users who wished to maintain scrutiny over the execution of contracts.

The "construction management" process spawned the "owner’s representative" slot. The most recent example of this was the completion of the Calatrava-designed Milwaukee Art Museum addition, which had an owner’s rep and a “CM” supervising bid work and performance.

Also taking shape was the increasingly popular but controversial “design/build” concept, where architectural, engineering and construction work are present in one entity, be it a firm specializing solely in design/build work or a joint venture, to achieve “single point” responsibility.

Finally, delivery systems began, through affirmative action, to require minority contractors for government financed projects.

Prepared for the future

Thus, it was during the ‘60s that the construction industry became involved in a new look organizationally, and contractors were forced to adapt. Accompanying inflation control, and under pressure to meet the new regulatory requirements, the table was set for the “modern day” construction industry.

It was also during this period that the industry received an extremely large helping of actual construction, for it was January 1953 when Dwight D. Eisenhower became president of the United States, succeeding Harry S. Truman.

It was Eisenhower’s World War II experience as supreme commander of allied forces that prompted him to request congressional funds to build across the length and breadth of the United States an interlocking system of military highways, also known as the Interstate Highway System.

There is no comparable public works project in the history of this country that had such a major effect on the way we live, work and play.

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