Thinking Big

Thinking Big: A History of Davis Langdon provides a history of one of the world’s largest quantity surveying companies. They have been involved in the rebuilding of Ground Zero, Chek Lap Kok, the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York and the Millennium Dome in London, amongst thousands of other projects around the world. Thinking Big is complete with illustrations of projects and details the working of this global multi-million dollar corporation and their impact on some of the most exciting buildings of the last century. Organised around seven chapters that cover different elements of the company’s history in detail and written by a senior partner of the company, Thinking Big provides details of the company’s foundation in the early years of the twentieth century, through the difficult years of the depression, to the firm’s growth in the 1930s and its international expansion in the post-war years. The book discusses the turbulent period of the 1970s and its leading to a merger and growth of new markets in the 1980s. Thinking Big outlines the company’s survival during the recession through to its increasing growth and diversification in the new millennium. The book goes on to look at the new challenges the company faces, including sustainability and the current economic crisis.