Civil & Civic
Civil & Civic was an Australian construction company. Founded in 1951, it was acquired in 1961 by Lend Lease Corporation.
Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Construction |
Successor | Bovis Lend Lease |
Founded | 1951 |
Founder | Dick Dusseldorp |
Defunct | 1999 |
Headquarters | , Australia |
Area served | Australia New Zealand |
Parent | Lend Lease Corporation |
Website | Lend Lease Projects |
History
Civil & Civic was founded by Dick Dusseldorp in 1951 on behalf of Dutch building companies Bredero's Bouwbedrijf and The Royal Dutch Harbour Company as an Australian building contractor.[1] Its first contract was to supply and erect 200 prefabricated houses for the Snowy Mountains Authority which had been established by William Hudson, engineer of the Snowy Mountains Scheme.[2]
Hudson's greatest obstacle in the completion of the scheme was the provision of labour and materials. Without a resolution to these two problems the realisation of the project was doubtful. But 31-year-old Dutch immigrant Dick Dusseldorp conceived a plan to prefabricate frames for worker housing in Finland, plumbing in England, ship materials via Cooma and recruit labour from the Netherlands to erect the homes. Dusseldorp established Civil & Civic to take on and manage the multimillion-dollar contract.[2]
Civil & Civic went on to become Australia's leading provider of project management services in the construction industry, delivering a number of landmark projects including Stage I of the Sydney Opera House,[3] Australia's first all concrete skyscraper (Caltex House),[4] and the world's first high-rise strata title apartment building (Blues Point Tower).[5]
In 1961 Civil & Civic was acquired by Lend Lease Corporation, but the company continued to trade under the Civil & Civic name, also constructing the world's tallest lightweight concrete construction building (Australia Square), and the tallest building in the world outside North America (MLC Centre) at the time of completion.[6]
In July 1999 Civil & Civic was rebranded Lend Lease Projects. After Lend Lease Corporation acquired Bovis from P&O in October 1999, the former Civil & Civic business merged with the former Bovis business to form Bovis Lend Lease.[7][6][8]
Major Projects
- Caltex House completed in 1957[4]
- The Shine Dome completed in 1958[9]
- Sydney Opera House Podium completed in 1962[3]
- Blues Point Tower completed in 1962[5]
- Reserve Bank of Australia Building, Sydney completed in 1964[10]
- Reserve Bank of Australia Building, Canberra completed in 1965[11]
- Australia Square completed in 1967[12]
- MLC Centre completed in 1977[6]
- Jolimont Centre completed in 1983[13]
- The Connaught completed in 1984[14]
- Parramatta Stadium completed in 1986
- Melbourne Park completed in 1988[6]
- Sydney Football Stadium completed in 1988[6]
- Sydney Olympic Village completed in 1999[15]
References
- The story of Lendlease Lendlease
- Modern Townships for Snowy Mountains Workers Sydney Morning Herald 12 January 1954 page 11
- Sydney Opera House Guide NSW State Records & Archives
- Ceramic Facing at New Caltex House Cumberland Argus 13 November 1957 page 10
- Towering ambition Sydney Morning Herald 27 September 2002
- Who We Are Bovis Lend Lease
- Ships - but no building BBC News 4 October 1999
- Home Lend Lease Projects
- Architecture Australian Academy of Science
- Reserve Bank, 65 Martin Place, Sydney Department of the Environment & Energy
- Reserve Bank of Australia, 20-22 London Circuit, Canberra Department of the Environment & Energy
- Australia Square: 50 Years in Sydney's Skyline Lendlease 9 May 2017
- $20m Jolimont Centre opens Canberra Times 6 May 1983
- City Living Archived 2009-09-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Sydney's Newington Olympic village 12 years after the closing ceremony Property Observer 8 August 2012