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Dowl Engineers

Locations

4041 B Street
Anchorage, AK 99503
(907) 562-2000 - p
(907) 563-3953 - f

5368 Commercial Boulevard
Juneau, Alaska 99801
(907) 780-3533 - p
(907) 780-3535 - f

809 S. Chugach Street
Palmer, AK 99645
(907) 746-7600 - p
(907) 746-6705 - f

8420 154th Avenue NE
Redmond, WA 98052
(425) 869-2670 - p
(425) 869-2679 - f

166 Alameda
Tucson, AZ 85701
(520) 882-8696 - p
(520) 624-0384 - f

DOWL History

The power of two

photo
Lewis E Dickinson, P.E.

What grew into DOWL began in 1962 when one of Alaska's leading civil engineers and one of Alaska's leading land surveyors left public service to open a two-man consulting business. On their second day in private practice, Lewis E. Dickinson, P.E. and Maurice P. Oswald, PLS landed their first job surveying one of Anchorage's oldest neighborhoods.

earthquake
The effects of the 1964 quake were devastating. All of Anchorage was shaken by the quake. The Turnagain neighborhood incurred the most dramatic damage.
Then came the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, at magnitude 9.2, the largest tremor to ever shake North America. The job of rebuilding Southcentral Alaska allowed the company to quickly expand, taking on two additional partners - Kenneth B. Walch, P.E. and Harry R. Lee, P.E. - and acquiring Alaska Testlab, a commercial geotechnical and materials testing laboratory.

photo
Maurice P Oswald, PLS

DOWL moved into its headquarters building at 4041 B Street in Anchorage in 1974 with more than $2 million in revenues and 35 employees. By 1982, the company reported 70 employees and revenues of $7 million.

In 1988, DOWL opened an office in Redmond, Washington to work more closely with clients and associates in the Pacific Northwest. Fourteen years later in 2002, DOWL added an office in Tucson, Arizona to serve its project interests in the Southwest.

employee photo
"Lew and Ozzie hired me in 1964 at the end of my junior year of high school. Probably the only reason I got a job was because it was right after the Good Friday Earthquake, which created more work for civil engineers and surveyors than is imaginable. By the end of three weeks, I knew I wanted to be their partner some day. These were special men and I have been proud to be part of this great team."

Melvin R. Nichols P.E. / Vice President

DOWL formed a partnership with NANA Development Corporation in 1996 to provide civil engineering and related services in rural Alaska. The partnership prospered and in 1999 NANA purchased a 51 percent interest in DOWL. The remaining 49 percent is owned by long-time DOWL managers.

NANA is one of 12 Native regional corporations formed in 1971 under the terms of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to represent the interests of its 11,000 shareholders, many of whom live in Northwest Alaska.

Today, DOWL's professional staff has grown to more than 200 and its award-winning work takes its staff throughout the Western United States.