Gilbane Building Company


Gilbane Building Company, based in Providence, Rhode Island, is a national construction and facility management company. Gilbane Building Company operates as a subsidiary of Gilbane, Inc. Gilbane Building Company was officially incorporated in 1908.

History

Gilbane Building Company, originally known as William H. Gilbane and Brother, was founded in 1870 by William H. Gilbane and his brother, Thomas, as a carpentry and general contracting shop in Providence, Rhode Island. The company first focused on building homes and later expanded to churches, hospitals and other buildings. William H. Gilbane’s sons, William J. Gilbane and Thomas F. Gilbane, joined the company as president and vice president in the late 1930s. In 1943, Gilbane was awarded the Army-Navy “E” Award by Under-Secretary of the Navy, James Forrestal.
Gilbane expanded its services and formed the development of its sister company, Gilbane Development Company, in 1970. Gilbane Development Company concentrates on real estate development, financing, construction, operations, and management. In that same year, William J. Gilbane Jr. and Thomas F. Gilbane Jr. joined Gilbane Construction Company.
In 2010, Gilbane acquired two separate companies: Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc., a California-based engineering and construction company on August 4, and W.G. Mills Inc., a construction management company based in Florida on November 15.
Paul J. Choquette, III, a member of the fifth generation of the Gilbane family, became senior vice president of Gilbane, Inc. in 2013. In 2014, William J. Gilbane Jr. became vice chair and director of Gilbane, Inc. His son, William J. Gilbane III, joined the company in 2001 and became a senior vice president of the New York division of Gilbane Building Company.
In 2015, Gilbane Building Company named Michael McKelvy its president and chief operating officer. McKelvy was appointed CEO in 2016, succeeding Thomas F. Gilbane Jr., who remains at the company as chairman. McKelvy is the first non-family member to hold those positions since the company’s founding in 1870.
As of June 2015, Gilbane has more than 50 offices within the United States and internationally. Family Business Magazine ranked Gilbane as the 78th largest family business in the United States in 2009. According to Engineering News Record, Gilbane Building Company was the 16th largest construction manager in the United States in 2015.

Notable projects

Gilbane Building Company has been a member of the U.S. Green Building Council since January 15, 1999. Members of Gilbane Building Company are also board members of the Women Builders Council and the ACE Mentor program.
On September 29, 2004, Gilbane Building Company formed the Gilbane Building Alliance with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The alliance was formed to provide resources and training for employee safety. In 2016, Gilbane Building Company proposed to OSHA a recommendation for on-site construction workers in New York State to hook into safety harnesses when they are working over six feet above ground. The proposal also recommended the use of two safety harnesses instead of the OSHA-required one. Gilbane claimed in its proposal that making these changes to their safety policy resulted in saving the lives of 20 workers on a project in Albany, NY.
Gilbane Building Company is a partner of Rebuilding Together, an organization that improves low-income housing.

Recognition

Gilbane Building Company was recognized with the Associated General Contractors of America Annual Construction Safety Excellence Award program in 2013. In 2015, Gilbane received the CURT Construction Industry Safety Excellence Award for General Building Contractors.
In 2015, Gilbane won the Associated Builders and Contractor National Excellence in Construction Award for General Contractors. In 2016, two Gilbane projects won the AGC Alliant Build America Award.
Two additional international Gilbane projects won the Engineering News Record’s Global Best Projects Competition in 2016: the Kerry Global Technology and Innovation Centre in Naas, Ireland, and the Ministry of Defense Complex in Kabul, Afghanistan.