On November 2, 1967, a thirty-year-old carpenter named Dee Livingood sold his blue Volkswagen for a thousand dollars and risked everything he had to start his own business. His nickname “Big-Dee” inspired the name for the company

“Then I had to go to Salt Lake to the Department of Business Regulations and get him a contractor’s license, unemployment compensation, industrial accidents and all the other red tape that goes with getting a guy in business. They filled out all the papers and everything and he looked at me and says ‘what’s the name of the company’? I batted my eyes and looked up in the air and I said ‘Big D’.”

– Jack Hilton

In a matter of seconds, the name “Big D” was founded. For many years, the name would be written as either Big D or Big “D”. In the early 90s, the hyphen was added to create “Big-D”.

Big-D constructs the Amcor Block Plant and Pipe Plant. This project marked one of Big-D’s first large manufacturing projects.

First year with $1 million in annual sales.

In the early years of Big-D Construction, all deals were generally settled with a handshake. In 1974 Dee Livingood had struck a million-dollar deal with Cream O’Weber. The company brought Dee in and asked him to design and build an addition to their freezer in Ogden. They worked up a price and shook hands on it.

Once the deal and the million-dollar price tag sunk in, Dee suggested that maybe they write something down on paper. A Purchase Order book was pulled out and the million-dollar job was handwritten to Big-D Construction. And that was Dee’s contract for his first million-dollar project.

Rob Moore and Dale Satterthwaite join Dee as Big-D’s first Business Development Manager and Estimator respectively. Dee’s son, Jack, would join two years later.

Big-D Construction completes first large scale design-build project for Kremco. The project marked Big-D’s first multimillion-dollar project.

The office was located near 400 South and 500 East in Salt Lake. It has since been demolished. In just 10 years, Big-D’s annual revenue went from $1 million to $10 million.

Jack Livingood is promoted to President and Dee Livingood devotes career to community service.

Big-D Construction has a longstanding history of building relationships with notable companies in the United States. In its early years, Big-D forged relationships with companies such as Kremco and Cream O’Weber. During the 80s, Big-D would begin working with Smith’s Food & Drug.

In 1989, Big-D would construct its first one-million square-foot project with Smith’s Food & Drug. The project was a processing and distribution center. “Smith’s was a turning point for us,” said Jack Livingood. “They took us into California and Arizona. So they were just a really big customer and we were doing jobs for them all over the West. It really expanded our thoughts on what we can be.”

Since 1989, Big-D would go on to construct a number of facilities for Smith’s in Utah, California, Arizona, and New Mexico.

When you drive along Interstate 80 in the Salt Lake Valley, you may notice a beige and blue building that currently houses the administration offices and classrooms for the Granite School District. At first glance, the building looks like a hospital. And it once was; in fact, it was a hospital that Big-D constructed in the early 90s.

The FHP Hospital project consisted of three separate buildings: Hospital, Specialty Center, and a Central Heat Plant. It was a 200,000 square-foot project that put Big-D on the map for healthcare. Aside from the buildings, Big-D also constructed an underground tunnel system that connected the Central Heat Plant and the Specialty Center with the Hospital.

The hospital was completed in the spring of 1993. However, it was sold just 3-years later. The hospital was eventually renamed the Rocky Mountain Medical Center under new ownership. The facility would close its doors permanently in 2001. Granite School District purchased the vacant hospital in 2004.

Big-D headquarters move from Ogden, Utah to Riverdale, Utah.

More than 3 million tortillas in a month! That is how many tortillas are produced at the “World’s Largest Tortilla Making Facility”. That’s a lot of guacamole. What you may not know is Big-D built the facility more than 20 years ago.

In 1994, Big-D Construction was hired by Mission Foods to construct a 310,000 square-foot production facility in Rancho Cucamonga, California. The production facility would be used to make corn and flour tortillas, chips, salsa and other products for sale by Mission Foods. Construction only took 10 months and today it produces about 21,000 tortillas in a day.

Dee Livingood dies at the age 57 after a battle with cancer. Jack Livingood becomes CEO.

In the mid-90s, Big-D Construction was roughly three times the size of most of its competitors. And the pressure was on to land the next big deal. That deal would come in the form of chips; computer chips to be exact. In 1995, Big-D Construction was awarded a $125-million-dollar project with Micron.

This would mark the largest project in the history of the company. “We put together a great project,” said Rob Moore. “So that was a huge milestone for us to get to that next big project level.” More than 2,400 workers were assigned to construct the four-level, 836,000 square-foot high-technology facility in Lehi, Utah. The team poured more than 52,000 cubic yards of concrete, erected 5,238 tons of structural steel, and installed 5,950 tons of rebar. Construction took just 8 months.

During the early 90s, Big-D was searching for an identity to help separate it from the competition. “We were trying to be more corporate,” said Big-D Chief Executive Officer, Rob Moore. “We wanted something that could identify with Big-D Construction. So we tried to look for an identity.”

The vision was to create something that represented both construction and the strength of Big-D. Working with Richter 7 and artist Scott Snow, that identity soon transformed into the Ironman. The initial drawings of the Ironman evolved to include the hard hat and steel beam. “All of a sudden, it stuck,” said Moore. “And we knew that when people look at that, they would identify with Big-D.”

“Our guys in the field absolutely love this image,” adds Jack Livingood. “It represents how they feel about themselves as construction workers.”

The Ironman has stood the test of time. His look and colors have never been altered. And while he has yet to make People Magazine’s “Sexiest Man Alive!” list, signs that bear his image have notoriously been stolen over the years.

Santee Dairy: Largest milk plant in the world.

More than 20 years after he first joined Big-D Construction, Rob Moore is promoted to President of the company.

In the late 90s, Big-D Construction adopted an elementary school. But not just any elementary school. Gramercy Elementary School in Ogden was where Jack Livingood was a student in his early years. In 1999, the school was officially adopted by Big-D Construction.

At the school, the “Big-D Club” was formed to emphasize the importance of having focused, positive goals to work towards. As members of the Club, students received an honorary Big-D identification card, a t-shirt, baseball hat, and admission to go on special trips. The school even had an Ironman in the main hall and whenever a student achieved a goal, his or her name was added to the beam. Big-D Construction also donated time and resources to repave the playground and repaint the interior and exterior walls of the school.

While the “Big-D Club” is no longer in existence, it still holds a special place in the hearts of everyone involved.

Leprino Foods: Largest cheese plant in the world.

It started as a vision more than a century ago. After Annie Taylor Dee’s husband, Thomas, suddenly died in 1905, she resolved to honor his memory with a hospital that would offer the best care to the community. Nearly 100 years after the Thomas D. Dee Memorial Hospital first opened, Big-D Construction would begin work on what would be a new, one million square-foot McKay-Dee Hospital. This would mark the largest healthcare project for Big-D.

The new hospital was designed and constructed to provide a healing environment for patients and guests. There are panoramic windows, fountains, vibrant colors and artwork, walking paths, and a nearby nature preserve.

Following its successful completion in 2001, Intermountain Healthcare has brought Big-D back for a number of remodels and additions at the McKay-Dee campus.

In 2002, Big-D Construction helped to construct the stage for the Winter Games in Salt Lake City. Big-D built several facilities for the Games, including the Olympic-sized version of Rice-Eccles Stadium that would host the opening and closing ceremonies. During this phase, crews had to work closely with the Secret Service and Counterterrorism Security personnel to secure seating for then-President George Bush for the opening ceremonies.

About an hour from Rice-Eccles, Big-D Construction was also hard at work transforming the Dee Events Center in Ogden into the venue for curling. Also, crews assembled the Olympic Grandstand for spectators and media to watch the Alpine Skiing and Giant Slalom events and Snowbasin Resort. In Park City, Big-D built the SLOC Amphitheater at Olympic Park.

It was arguably one of the most complicated construction projects in Utah that was intended to capture the imaginations and aspirations of downtown Salt Lake City. And it did; all 280,000 square feet of it. In the early 2000s, Big-D found itself at the helm of constructing the new Salt Lake City Library. It was an ambitious project that would take nearly 30 months to complete.

The six-story curving, walkable wall of the library has now become almost as iconic as the Capitol Building that stands about a mile away. The 600-foot walkable wall embraces a public plaza, shops, spiraling fireplaces, gallery space for more than 500,000 books, and a 300-seat auditorium. A magnificent stairway rises through the building to reveal a beautiful rooftop garden. There’s a “lens” on the south side that helps to warm the building during the winter months.

At the time, the project would mark the largest architectural concrete project in Utah.

The Fuller Paint Building has been a unique part of downtown Salt Lake City since it was first constructed it in 1922. In 2004, Jack Livingood purchased the building and embarked on a restoration project that would garner a LEED Gold certification and a listing on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s Big-D’s home, but it also has some seldom discussed secrets.

Big-D opens the Lindon Regional Office.

Big-D would mark the first year with $400 million in sales, 30-years after the company was first founded.

Washington Square Towers would mark Big-D’s first high-rise project. The two, 24-story towers could also be Big-D’s largest residential project to date.

In 2010, the Balfour Beatty | DPR | Big-D Joint Venture was selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide design-build services for the Utah Data Center at Camp Williams in Utah. Also known as the Intelligence Community Comprehensive National Cybersecurity Initiative Data Center, the facility would highlight several innovative technology and energy efficiency features.

This project would mark the first billion dollar project for Big-D. The project would also add another million square-feet to Big-D’s portfolio. The facility consists of approximately 400,000 square-feet for a mission critical data center and 1.2 million square feet of technical support and administrative space.

Groundbreaking was held in the fall of 2010 and construction concluded in the fall of 2013.

Big-D now has 800 employees working out of six offices across the country.

The Natural History Museum of Utah first opened its doors on the campus of the University of Utah in the 1960s. When it opened in the former George Thomas Library, it featured specimens that dated back thousands of years ago.

In 2008, Big-D Construction helped the Natural History Museum to “evolve” with the construction of a new, 163,000 square-foot interactive facility to house some 1.2 million objects, including clothing worn by the first people to inhabit Utah. The new building’s architectural design sensitively integrates it into a natural 17-acre site located above the shoreline of ancient Lake Bonneville (the lake existed until about 14,500 years ago). Construction took just 3 years and the Museum opened in 2011.

Inside, the Natural History Museum features the world’s largest display of horned dinosaur skulls from the Cretaceous and Jurassic periods. The Natural History Museum also has state-of-the-art Paleontology and Anthropology laboratories that provide a sterile atmosphere to study and store objects from the museum’s collection.

Big-D is selected as ENR Mountain States’ “Contractor of the Year”.

Big-D is named “Best of State” for the second consecutive year.

Philadelphia Pennsylvania Temple, The Alexander Residential Tower, and LDS Stake Center: First East Coast large-scale project as a joint venture.

SLC Airport: Terminal Redevelopment Project, $3 billion, 10-year project. Big-D would team up with Holder Construction to create HDJV.

Nearly 50 years since it was first founded, Big-D Construction achieves a billion dollars in sales. At the time, nearly 1,000 employees are employed at Big-D’s Corporate and Regional Offices.

Utah Business Magazine honors Forrest McNabb for his efforts of promoting sustainability throughout the company. He was honored for “Green Leadership” during the 2017 Green Business Awards.

Through McNabb’s leadership, Big-D Construction has become a top player in the industry’s sustainability movement. The firm’s corporate office, completed in 2004, was the first LEED Gold Historic Renovation in Utah. Now, Big-D has a portfolio of more than 70 LEED projects and its staff includes 65 LEED accredited professionals.

Big-D Construction makes several organizational changes to facilitate its growth. Rob Moore is promoted to Chief Executive Officer. Forrest McNabb is promoted to President of the Mountain West Group.

As Big-D’s brand expands nationally, Cory Moore is promoted to Executive Vice President and National Managing Director of Big-D’s regional offices. Troy Thompson joins Big-D as Executive Vice President. The two would be tasked with expanding Big-D’s national footprint while supporting its seven regional offices.

Big-D also named “Contractor of the Year” by the Utah Chapter of CCIM.

On November 2, 2017, Big-D Construction celebrates its 50-year anniversary. As part of the celebration, Big-D released a book commemorating its 50-year tenure in the construction business.

From laborer, to Chief Estimator, to Senior Vice President and member of the Board, Dale Satterthwaite has worn many hard hats since the early days of Big-D Construction. Fresh off a church mission and his honeymoon, Dale’s first job with the company was working on the Freeport Center Post office. Now, after more than 43 years, Dale Satterthwaite retired from Big-D Construction.

“It has personally been a growing and learning experience, and I wouldn’t wish for it to be any different”, said Satterthwaite on his career here at Big-D Construction. Dale says he plans to spend his retirement working on personal projects as well as in his shop fixing toys for his grandkids. Dale says he hopes to serve another LDS mission with his wife.

Big-D opens the Idaho Falls office.

The Top Performers were ranked by size based on the number of hours worked in 2017, as reported in their 2018 STEP applications. To be eligible, Big-D had to demonstrate world-class safety performance that aligned with ABC’s STEP safety management system.

“ABC Top Performers are leading the way in the merit shop construction industry, where diverse participants are constantly striving to achieve the highest levels of personal and company performance in an environment of fair and open competition,” said Michael Bellaman, president and chief executive officer of ABC. “These rankings will help the industry identify contractors like Big-D Construction that have achieved world-class safety performance, demonstrated their commitment to their workers and their communities and earned recognition for project excellence and diversity.”

The Salt Lake City & County Historic Renovation project was named “Project Champion” by the Utah Chapter of the Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC). The project would later be awarded a Heritage Award by Preservation Utah.

Big-D Construction was honored for its green practices on the Weber State University Lindquist Hall Renovation project. The Green Business award was issued by Utah Business Magazine.

As customers are becoming more environmentally aware, the push for green design and building concepts is increasing. Big-D has many different projects underway with more ecofriendly practices and is always working to reduce our carbon footprint. Our efforts are getting recognized and helped us jump 5 spots from last years  ENR Top Green Contractor List, we are now #41!

Every company is ranked according to revenue from construction or design services generated in 2018 from projects that have been registered with or certified by the facility’s environmental impact, energy efficiency or carbon footprint.

The Big-D Family of Companies is building a better tomorrow!

Inc. Magazine recently recognized Big-D Construction for the first time on their 2019 Inc. 5000 Most Successful Companies in America list, the most prestigious ranking of the nation’s fastest-growing privately held companies. Big-D Construction is honored to be the only commercial construction company in Utah to make the list and ranked #232 among the honorees in the construction field across the nation. This is truly a defining moment for our company!

The 2019 Inc. 5000 list is ranked according to the percentage of revenue growth from 2015 to 2018 and Big-D’s steady 3-year revenue growth rate was 58%. We wish to thank each of our dedicated employees and partners who have helped us get to where we are today through our 52-year journey in our mission to be the most sought-after construction company in the business!

The Salt Lake Tribune recently featured architect David Ross Scheer’s list of the 10 best Utah buildings, 3 of which Big-D is honored to have built or renovated: The Salt Lake City Public Library (built in 2003); The Natural History Museum of Utah (built in 2011); and The  City County Building (renovated in 2018). All buildings are open to the public. Please go admire their captivating architectural designs and quality craftsmanship.

Big-D Construction was ranked 2nd by Utah Design & Construction Magazine as a 2020 Top Utah General Contractor and a 2020 Top Utah General Builder!

These rankings are based on revenues generated in 2019 by Utah firms. Firms are ranked by overall revenues (all U.S. offices) in addition to revenues generated from their office(s) based in Utah.

Thank you to all of our loyal clients, employees, and trade partners who make these rankings possible. Your dedication is unmatched.

Congratulations to Big-D’s own CEO, Rob Moore, on being named as a Utah Business 2020 CEO of the Year! Rob is an excellent leader and continues to set an example for all Big-D employees, including the next generation of executive leaders. He firmly believes in helping up-and-coming leaders understand that there is a future for them in the construction industry, and that construction can provide you with a career—not just merely a job.

Thanks to Rob for his leadership and guidance in defining what it means to ‘Think Big’.

Holder | Big-D Construction, A Joint Venture, recognizes our partners and our community for one smooth takeoff.

The new Salt Lake City Airport officially opened its gates on September 15, and no participating partner was prouder of its association than Utah’s own Big-D Construction. Working as part of Holder | Big-D A Joint Venture (HDJV), our teams brought the New SLC Airport in on time, on course, and on budget.

We are proud to announce that Holder | Big-D Construction, A Joint Venture has been awarded the 2020 UC&D Project of the Year Award for the Salt Lake City Airport Redevelopment Program! Thank you to all our employees, trade partners, and associates for your contributions to this monumental project. We could not have done it without you!

With more than 330 flight departures per day, the Salt Lake International Airport is the 25th busiest airport in North America and the 85th busiest in the world. The airport services an estimated 26 million passengers annually. That figure will continue to increase as more people move to Utah, and as more businesses set up shop in the state. In order to keep up with the demand, the Salt Lake City Department of Airports and Salt Lake City officials launched a 10-year, $4.1 billion dollar redevelopment program to replace the previous Salt Lake City International Airport with a new facility that highlights Utah’s beauty while cutting down energy costs.

The New SLC Airport project required innovative construction methods to be put in place. The parking structure has a post-tension moment frame to maximize available parking space. The post-tensioned, cast-in-place helical ramps sit outside the garage footprint and help maximize parking spaces for passengers.

The ENR regional editors have selected Big-D Construction for 2021 Contractor of the Year in the Mountain States region for the Intermountain area. We are honored and humbled for this recognition and wish to extend our gratitude to all of the Big-D employees, owners, and trade partners that help to make each projects vision a reality.
THINK BIG | WORK BIG | LIVE BIG

We are honored to announce that Big-D has, once again, been named the 2021 Utah Best of State award winner for Commercial Construction! The prestigious Best of State Awards recognize local businesses for their excellence and contributions to their communities. We are so fortunate to have the best employees, customers, and subcontractors in the business—know that we couldn’t do it without you!

The submission for this award took a lot of collaborative effort. Please know that we appreciate each and every one of you. Thank you for being part of our Big-D Family, and for continuing to help Big-D become the most sought-after construction company in the business.

Big-D Construction congratulates the Salt Lake City International Airport (SLC) as they celebrate their one-year anniversary and announcement by the USGBC for achieving LEED Gold Certification!
SLC International Airport Celebrates One-year Anniversary
USGBC Announces LEED Gold Certification Achieved

Salt Lake City, UT (Sept. 15, 2021) –Today, the Salt Lake City Department of Airports (SLCDA) celebrates one year since opening The New SLC-Phase 1—with the distinction of being the first new U.S. hub airport built in the 21st Century—while announcing LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council.

More than 100 award applications were received, and both our Ogden and Lindon groups are recipients, along with the many partners involved in completing these outstanding projects!

Congratulations on the following projects and categories!
• Tyson Foods Case Ready Plant – Manufacturing
• Orem Family Fitness Center – Sports and Recreation

Rich started with Big-D Construction 11 years ago. However his career did not begin in construction. In 1989, after completing two undergraduate degrees in Economics and Sociology at the University of Utah and a MBA from Westminster College, Rich then started an internship, which turned into a full-time position, with the Salt Lake City Chamber of Commerce, where he had the opportunity to work and network with community leaders and CEO’s, which today is proving to be very beneficial.

The honor was awarded from Lindon Mayor, Carolyn Lundberg, at the Pleasant Grove-Lindon Chamber of Commerce Annual Awards Gala on Wednesday.
Great work team Lindon!

Bryan Utley is now the new Vice President in Big-D’s Salt Lake City regional office and has been with Big-D since 2013.

Andrew Soderquist is now the new Vice President in Big-D’s Salt Lake City regional office.