Construction

GVA Sawyer is a fully-licensed full-spectrum general contractor, able to fulfill any kind of construction work from renovation of apartments and storefronts, to turnkey new construction using monolithic concrete, steel, or brick, and complex infrastructure works.

GVA Sawyer’s Construction Department bridges the gap between Western technologies and quality standards and knowledge of local conditions and rational use of local materials and labor. GVA Sawyer can mobilize from two or three up to several hundred workers for jobs of various sizes, covering all of the construction trades. GVA Sawyer rarely subcontracts any significant aspect of any particular job, as it has the capability in-house of performing almost any type of work, including computer and telephone network installation, infrastructure works, all kinds of specialized finishing works, and others.

GVA Sawyer’s Construction Department achieves highest standards of quality by using carefully selected local labor trained in-house, and meticulously supervised. Relatively moderate local labor costs make it possible to be more perfectionistic than is economical in the West, expending slightly more man-hours of labor when required to achieve perfect results. The difference is in approach, philosophy, training, and management. GVA Sawyer construction workers have exceptional esprit de corps and exceptional pride in their work.

GVA Sawyer’s labor forces are backed up with in-house engineering and architectural resources, allowing GVA Sawyer to provide true turnkey solutions for any kind of complex construction problem. For example, when Chase Manhattan Bank expanded its premises in Parus Business Center on Tverskaya Street in downtown Moscow to cover several floors, it had difficulty finding a contractor willing to the planned new internal stair, which required cutting a stressed monolithic floor slab which formed a structural element of the building. Chase turned to GVA Sawyer, whose engineers were able to work out a new system of structural reinforcement for the building, approve this scheme with the owner of the building and the local authorities, and execute the work economically and quickly, creating a beautiful internal staircase between Chase’s original premises and expansion space added on the floor above. The complicated structural reinforcements were performed without disrupting the Chase’s work in the premises, or any other tenant in the building.

GVA Sawyer has especially deep experience in renovation and fitout works. GVA Sawyer lovingly restored a historical 18th century mansion near the U.S. Embassy for Leucadia International and PepsiCo International, managing to overcome the contradictions between the dictates of modern office design and the strict Moscow historical building regulations. For example, it was strictly forbidden to replace the 18th century wooden windows, although these were crumbling after 75 years of Communist neglect, and all of the historical details, some long lost, were required to be recreated. GVA Sawyer managed to do all of that, recreating the historical atmosphere of the building, while incorporating modern computer network systems, central air conditioning, and other necessities of modern offices.

GVA Sawyer also performed all fitout works, including computer and telephone wiring systems, for the United Nations General Representation in Russia, which is located in GVA Sawyer’s Alexeivsky House on Ostozhenka Street in Moscow, as well as for Levi Strauss, Bank Agricole de France, Azimuth West, and many others.

Another niche GVA Sawyer has intensively covered over the years is elite apartment renovations and fitouts. GVA Sawyer has performed such works for a long list of clients including Rank Xerox, Deloitte & Touche, Master Bank, and a number of Russian public figures. GVA Sawyer is almost unique on this market in combining exceptionally high standards of quality with an understanding of restrained Western taste. And unlike most other contractors active on this market, GVA Sawyer performs such work by strictly by the book, performing preliminary architectural work in compliance with all local codes and norms, and obtaining official approvals prior to starting physical work.