Washington Group International
(formerly:
Morrison Knudsen)
- Corporate
Information & History
Washington Group International, Inc. was formed in July
2000 following the acquisition by Morrison Knudsen
Corporation of Raytheon Engineers & Constructors.
The combined company moved forward with a new name and a
position as one of the largest engineering and
construction firms in the United States.
Washington Group has approximately 38,000 employees
at work in more than 40 countries...
The company is headquartered in Boise, Idaho, and is
organized into five operating units: Power,
Infrastructure & Mining, Government, Industrial/Process, and
Petroleum & Chemicals.
- Legal statement
about disclosures
Clippings:
Idaho sputters over tech boom
Seattle Times, March 18, 2001, by Brandon Loomis
The Associated Press
Idaho's transformation from rural to urban was
arguably the nation's starkest of the
1990s, when growth erupted by nearly 29 percent
and was focused mostly in and around the
capital. As headquarters to computer-chip maker
Micron, Boise became a technology power.
BOISE - Idaho's capital could be a prototype
for the New West Economy: New West grows, but same old
questions persist
Seattle Times, June 01, 2000; by Mark Trahant
This city started almost 150 years ago as a
fur-trading outpost for the Hudson's Bay
Company.
A few years later, miners traveled here to
strike it rich during a gold rush that started in
1862. Others came to cut trees, build houses or grow
crops. This century's boom is present, too. Tens of
thousands of jobs have been created by
Micron Technology, Hewlett-Packard, and other
technology firms.
Bountiful Boise: Crossroad city
is a hub for recreation and
business;
Seattle Times, January 12, 2000
by Dan Gallagher
Boise remains a good place to do business. It is the
corporate headquarters of computer-chip
maker Micron Technology Inc., agribusiness' J.R.
Simplot Co., Hoover Dam builder Morrison-Knudsen
Co., Inc., and the Albertson's Inc. supermarket
chain. It also has a Hewlett-Packard electronics plant
involved in research and development.
Literature:
Pred, Allan. City System in Advanced Economies: Past Growth, Present
Processes and Future Development Options. Wiley, N.Y. 1977.
Discussion of the Boise Phenomenon:
- pp.127-38
- pp.154-7 (maps)
- p.133 + p.162: "On a per capita basis Boise's non-local job control
approaches that for the New York City metropolitan complex. Boise's
extremely high relative level of non-local intraorganizational linkages is
mostly the product of four organizations..."
- pp.203-6: "What factors have made it possible for the 'improperly'
located headquarters of these four major corporations -- as well as the
chief offices of eight somewhat smaller multinational businesses -- both
to manage the most successful rapid expansion of their activities and to
coordinate their widespread operations in North America and overseas?
- The physical environment and outdoors recreational facilities
- "The adoption of measures which were clearly designed to compensate
for the city's contact limitations" (p.204)
- Availability of commercial airline services (p.205)
- Availability of "most of the business services necessary to the
operations of Boise's leading head offices." (p.205)
Return to Econ & Bus Geog
2001 [econgeog@u.washington.edu]
