Who Owns Whiting-Turner?

G.W.C. Whiting and LeBaron Turner founded the company in Baltimore in 1909 as a small general contracting firm. It grew steadily through the early and mid twentieth century on public and private building work across the mid-Atlantic, developing a reputation for conservative financial management and a refusal to grow through mergers.

The postwar decades brought national expansion. Whiting-Turner opened offices across the United States and built a portfolio spanning healthcare, education, life sciences, government, retail, and mission-critical facilities, while remaining privately held and internally managed. Its strategy of promoting from within produced unusual leadership stability, with presidents and CEOs drawn from long-tenured project and operations staff.

By the 2000s and 2010s the firm had become one of the largest contractors in the country entirely through organic growth, a distinction it emphasizes over acquisitive rivals. Notable project work has included major healthcare systems, university campuses, data centers, and large federal facilities.

Its scale reached roughly $13.3 billion in 2024 construction revenue, placing it fifth on ENR's 2026 Top 400 Contractors ranking, behind only Turner Construction, Bechtel, STO Building Group, and Kiewit. It has employed approximately 5,500 people, all within the United States market it has served for more than a century.