A Decade of DPR: How It All Began

Doug Woods, Peter Nosler and Ron Davidowski – who are always looking forward – take a look back on the beginning and how far DPR has come.

A blue wall and a conference table serve as daily reminders of the first days of DPR. From one office and 11 professionals to 13 offices across the country and nearly 2,000 people, Doug, Peter and Ron attribute the company’s successful growth to the dedicated individuals who work hard each day to build a truly great construction company.

Shortly after Doug, Peter and Ron made the best business decision of their lives by starting their own company in July 1990, they leased 3,500 sq. ft. on the second floor of 555 Twin Dolphin Drive, located on the then-undeveloped Redwood Shores in Redwood City, CA.

“A major coup was getting a landlord to rent space to us for five years,” said Peter. “We were a new company with no track record. At the time, the landlord was not deluged with applicants out here, which I think helped us quite a bit. And, the lease terms provided $20 to $25 a square foot to build out the space, so our very first job was DPR’s first office.”

“We built the blue stone wall behind the reception desk and the conference table in the Big Bopper room. We laid carpet and put in ceiling panels,” said Ron. “Originally, we thought that the 3,500 square feet would hold us for at least four or five years, but after a year, we started expanding, gradually taking over the entire floor in phases, and we have been growing ever since.”

Then and Now – “Growing is an Understatement”

DPR started its first year with a total of 11 professionals. In addition to “D, P and R,” the original crew includes Sandy Grayson, Michele Leiva, Eric Lamb, Peter Salvati, Jim Washburn, Mark Bartley, Brad Des Jardin and Jim Dolen – who are all still with the company today. And, much like the hundreds of projects DPR has completed, the company has been moving on the fast track, with regional offices established in nearly every major technology center in the U.S. and projects currently under construction even in states where it does not have offices. DPR also reached more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue under the 10-year anniversary mark.

When asked what he considered to be the most successful moment at DPR, Doug answered, “We’ve had a lot of great successes, but I can’t think of one defining moment, because we’re not done yet. As the company continues to move forward, new opportunities constantly arise. One way we measure success, however, is by not letting employees down and keeping people within the company challenged and moving up.”

DPR exists to “build great things,” and people are the foundation of DPR. “There are many spectacular stories of individuals, who after coming to work here found out their true capabilities,” said Peter. “Several people have gone from pounding nails on a jobsite to becoming integral members of the management team. This represents success, as one underlying concept from the very beginning was to build an entrepreneurial organization, where people can continuously grow.”

First Customers– “Building Great Things”

DPR’s first pure contractor job was a $4.5 million, six-month tenant improvement project for Argo Systems in Sunnyvale, CA, where DPR was selected from among four or five other competitors.

“I remember sitting at my desk when we got the call,” said Peter. “We had been doing some consulting work, estimating, early on, but our first real customer in terms of being a builder was Argo. Those were difficult times. We were just learning to live with one another, and when there’s no money coming through the door, it’s pretty stressful.” All three consider the Argo project, which included core build-out of the elevator and bathroom areas, lobby finish, and electrical and HVAC systems for the shell, to be one of the company’s first major milestones.

“Shortly after we started the company, a recession hit, and the work just seemed to disappear overnight,” said Doug. “Before the Argo job, I would wake up at night in a cold sweat wondering how we were going to pay people, but more than that, people had trusted Peter, Ron and me, so I just kept thinking, ‘we gotta come through.’ If we can just keep this going for five years, we can make it.”

In 1994, DPR landed a $43 million wafer fabrication project in Los Angeles for Rockwell International. The six-month, fast-track project represented the type of work the three founders had pictured for the company. “We wanted to be in technical construction,” said Ron. “We did not want to be a commodity but establish a niche to distinguish ourselves from other contractors.” The Rockwell project included building 17,500 sq. ft. of Class 1 cleanrooms, upgrading the existing central plant, installing specialty and bulk gas systems, and constructing a new bulk chemical building. DPR delivered the project ahead of schedule with fully functional cleanrooms in just four and a half months.

“Before Rockwell, we had never done a job that significant,” said Doug. “I think we were awarded the project because the client thought we sounded like the most fun to work with, and we were crazy enough to say ‘yeah, we could do it’ in the timeframe they wanted. We shoveled as fast and as hard as we could.”

The Rockwell job launched DPR into a new level of building technical facilities. Today, DPR is one of the nation’s leading contractors and specializes in technically challenging projects in data/com, biopharmaceutical, semiconductor, entertainment, healthcare and high-end corporate office markets.

Vision – “Dreaming the Dream and Learning From Each Other”

A significant point in the history of DPR was a meeting in spring of 1992 with Jim Collins, a management consultant and author of “Built to Last,” who helped to identify and articulate the core values that continue to drive the company today.

“We defined our purpose and established our mission during that meeting,” said Peter. Doug added that, “To say we wanted to become a truly great construction company by the year 2000 was like a three-year-old saying that I want to graduate from college by the time I’m 10. We do set high goals, but with the people we have in place, we know we can reach every one of them.”

Ron felt positive that they could build a truly great company due to the network that each one of them had built and the individual skill sets they had developed. “In the very beginning, we were just three senior guys in one organization with a passion for building,” said Ron.

The “three senior guys” have learned a lot from each other over the past 10 years. Both Doug and Ron said that they have learned patience from Peter – how to slow down and listen and allow others to resolve issues on their own. Doug and Peter have learned how to have fun from Ron, along with the importance of building and maintaining relationships, which were particularly instrumental in the early days of DPR.

“It was Ron’s relationships with the bank and insurers that really got us through the initial phase, providing us with the financial base and bonding capacity we needed to compete against larger contractors,” said Peter.

From Doug comes the “audacious vision.” According to Peter and Ron, Doug is the one with the “believe it and it will happen” attitude, and Doug demands more from himself than anyone.

“You have to be the best at whatever you do,” said Doug. “Anything less than that is not good enough.”