Hoffman Corporation

International Directory of Company Histories, Volume 78 (2007) by Carrie Rothburd

Hoffman Corporation

805 S.W. Broadway, Suite 2100 Portland, Oregon 97205 U.S.A. Telephone: (503) 221-8811 Fax: (503) 221-8934 Web site: http://www.hoffmancorp.com

Private Company Incorporated: 1954 Employees: 1,460 Operating Revenues: $1.38 billion (2005 est.) NAIC: 236210 Industrial Building Construction; 236220 Commercial and Institutional Building Construction; 237990 Other Heavy and Civil Engineering Construction; 238210 Electrical Contractors; 238220 Plumbing, Heating, and Air-Conditioning Contractors; 541611 Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services

One of the largest general contractors and construction managers in the United States, Hoffman Corporation, which does business as Hoffman Construction Company, has built some of the most well-known modern structures in Portland, Oregon, and Seattle, Washington. The company has in-house expertise in mechanical, electrical, structural, and architectural engineering. Hoffman is a privately held company, with all corporate stock owned by employees.

ORIGINS IN 1921

Lee Hawley (L. H.) Hoffman established Hoffman & Rasmussen, a construction company, in 1921. L. H.'s father, the first Lee Hoffman, had come west in 1870 to help build covered bridges on the Willamette River that runs through Portland, Oregon. He had built a successful career in construction, married, and had two children, a daughter, Margery, in 1888, and a son, L. H., in 1884. After Hoffman's untimely death in 1895, the family moved east to Boston.

L. H. Hoffman attended Harvard College where he earned a degree in architecture in 1906. Two years later, he joined a successful Portland-based architectural firm, where he discovered his true calling lay in contract management. After working as the firm's general inspector, he eventually left the firm. During World War I, Hoffman served as a land agent for the Warren Spruce Company, logging, hauling, and manufacturing "spruce clears" for airplane manufacture.

Hoffman & Rasmussen had 32 contracts in 1929. However, the Great Depression slowed investment in construction nationwide. Contracts numbered 30 in 1930, 13 in 1931, and ten in 1932. In order to remain successful, Hoffman moved his company in a new direction in the 1930s. While the firm's first decade had concentrated on private sector apartments, small factories, theaters, and high-rise buildings, the company now embarked on a series of cultural projects, such as the Portland Art Museum and the library of Willamette University in Salem, Oregon. It also undertook public projects for federal, state, and county governments, including courthouses and post offices and highway-related construction. This work took the company outside of Portland and earned it a reputation in the Northwest for constructing quality facilities.

During World War II, the company refocused its efforts again, working on several defense projects, including warehouses, barracks, and hospitals for the military, and civilian housing and urban facilities surrounding federal installations. The company also built facilities for the production of raw materials for manufacturing airplanes. From 1942 to about 1952, Hoffman worked on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, part of the Department of Defense's Manhattan project, building shops, offices, schools, theaters, and houses in the new town of Richmond, Washington. All together, Hoffman carried out $49 million in wartime construction for the federal government, representing nine joint ventures and three solo projects.

POSTWAR ACTIVITIES

With the war over, L. H. Hoffman's company resumed commercial construction as the American economy made the shift back from war supplies. The company also provided support for the Northwest's growing wood products industry, taking on new clients and constructing or enlarging new facilities for repeat customers. Throughout the 1940s, clients represented a veritable who's who of important landmarks and players in Portland: Meier & Frank, Crown Mills, Irving Dock, the Portland Art Museum, Pacific Power & Light, Sears Roebuck and Company, the National Biscuit Company, and the Oregonian .

During the 1950s, Hoffman continued to work in commercial construction, building schools, department stores, and other office buildings, sometimes making use of the precast, tilt-up concrete panel construction the company had introduced to the Pacific Northwest in 1949. This building method entailed pouring concrete walls in forms that lay on top of an already poured concrete floor. Once the concrete had cured, special lift equipment raised the panel to position, and crews locked it in with welded steel dowels. However, the paper and pulp industry came to represent Hoffman's bread and butter business during the 1950s. The changing policies of the U.S. Forest Service created a thriving national publishing industry, and the mounting demand for pulp and paper products drove the region's pulp processors to upgrade and expand their plants. New projects in pulp, paper, and sawmill facilities ranged from small jobs, to massive, complex installations. The company also continued to work for the federal government at the Hanford Nuclear Works in Washington state as the Cold War drove a regular program of military preparedness.