KEY POINTS:
One of the country's largest builders celebrates six decades in business tomorrow.
Hawkins Construction, which has just finished the grand atrium project at the Auckland War Memorial Museum, is owned by the Auckland-based McConnell Group, controlled by the descendants of the late Buck McConnell.
His sons, David and John, are involved in running the group - David McConnell in the managing director role while John McConnell is the commercial director.
Hawkins Construction is run by chief executive Chris Hunter from its headquarters at Manukau.
The construction firm was started just after the Second World War by Hamilton builder Fred Hawkins, who started on houses but had his eye on larger projects - getting his first commercial job in 1947 from the New Zealand Co-operative Dairy at Te Awamutu.
Hawkins Construction then tendered to build NZ Forest Products' Kinleith pulp and paper mill. In the early 1950s, it built a steel airline hanger at Whenupai, new offices for Hamilton City Council in 1960, followed by the Founders Memorial Theatre in Hamilton, a large block at Waikato Hospital and Auckland University's human sciences building.
Other large projects have included the Motonui Gas Plant, NZ Dairy's offices at Te Rapa, Auckland International Airport's terminal building, the ANZ Tower in Auckland, Television New Zealand's national headquarters in Auckland and the Rendezvous Hotel, which is also in the country's main city.
McConnell bought Hawkins in a reverse takeover in 1982, shifting the headquarters to Auckland.
During the past decade, Hawkins has specialised in public sector jobs such as schools, prisons and hospitals. The company worked on Middlemore Hospital in 2000, Christchurch Women's Hospital in 2005 and prisons in Otago and Auckland in 2005.
Overseas work has included the ACB Building in Samoa, Denerau Golf Club in Fiji, the New Zealand Embassy in Vietnam, Hulhule Resort Hotel in the Maldives and Walls Icecream plant in Vietnam.
Other recent large jobs for the company include Air New Zealand's new office park and international headquarters on Fanshawe St in Auckland, Parnell College, Waiariki Institute of Technology in Taupo and the Manukau Surgery Centre.
