Geneva, May 22, 2012 – Japan Tobacco International (JTI) today announced that it has selected Implenia, Switzerland's leading construction and construction services company, as total contractor for the overall building works of its new international headquarters in the Sécheron area of Geneva.
"During the selection process, we wanted to privilege a provider that could lead the total construction works, from beginning to end”, says Tony Gomez, Project Lead at JTI. “Implenia not only met these criteria, but differentiated itself by the quality of its submission. Its technical and logistical know-how, its ability to lead large-scale projects and its reputation for excellence in execution, both locally and worldwide, reinforced our decision”.
“JTI’s new headquarters will be a landmark building for Geneva. Its impressive steel structure and expansive glass façade make it a unique piece of architecture,” notes Alain Perrenoud, Responsible at Implenia for General Contracting in French-speaking Switzerland. “We are very proud to bring our expertise to this large-scale project and will tackle the challenge by combining our well-founded knowledge ranging from project management through civil and foundation engineering to building construction”.
World-renowned Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP (SOM), together with Geneva-based group8, are the architects of JTI’s administrative and industrial building, which will have a total surface of approximately 25’000 square meters and accommodate 1100 workplaces.
The building site of JTI’s new headquarters opened on 16 April, 2012 and the construction works will start next June. In total, nearly 5'600 tons of steel and 16’500 square meters of glass will be needed for the structure and façade of the nine-storied building, which will meet the ‘Minergie’ standards. Over the next three years, this large-scale project will be one of the driving forces of the local construction industry.