The first construction operations performed by Peter Kiewit Sons' Co. in the Pacific Northwest date back to 1940 a time when the country was gearing up for war, the draft was underway and the Army needed to house hundreds of thousands of young men.

Kiewit Construction built the Northern Life Tower in downtown Seattle. After 1940, it served as the contractor's first headquarters for its Pacific Building District.

In the fall of 1940, Kiewit of Omaha, Neb., formed a joint venture with a local Seattle firm, Sound Construction and Engineering Co., to build a project at Fort Lewis. The original scope of the job called for building 760 barrack buildings along with all the streets, the utilities and support facilities within 90 days. Shortly after work had begun, the Army doubled the scope of the project to more than 1,540 buildings without increasing the time frame. This was the biggest job either company had ever undertaken, and under the direction of Tom Paul, who eventually became the first manager of the Seattle District, the Sound-Kiewit organization was quickly assembled and completed the project on time.

Kiewit acquired half interest in Sound and additional work was done in the Northwest under the name of both companies. Some major projects included construction of the Washington Athletic Club, the home office for the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia and the Northern Life Tower Building, where Kiewit had its first Seattle District office.

By 1945, Sound had become a wholly owned subsidiary of Kiewit.

The Seattle District grew quickly from 1950 to 1980, building many notable structures along the way: the Kingdome, part of the Interstate 5 freeway system, buildings for Boeing, schools, hospitals, buildings for the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle, power plants in Hanford and the parking structure at Sea-Tac Airport, the largest of its kind at the time.

In 1995, Steve Fisher became the eighth district manager of the Seattle District, now called the Pacific Building District of Kiewit Construction Co.

Some of the more recent notable projects are Safeco Field, the W Hotel, and Ballard High School.