A General Contractor With Its Own Wood Shop and Steel Shop
Most general contractors in New York build by managing subcontractors. The millwork goes to one shop, the stair and railings to a metal fabricator, the cabinetry to a third, and the general contractor coordinates between them. Eurostruct works differently. From our 22,500-square-foot facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which also houses our estimating, contracts, accounting and insurance administration, we run our own millwork shop and steel fabrication shop. For architects and owners, that changes how the most visible parts of a building get made.
What we make ourselves
Millwork and cabinetry
- Gallery wall systems and reveal details
- Custom casework
- Doors, frames and paneling
- Veneer work
- Display cases, vitrines and plinths
- Library and classroom casework
- Stair and rail components
- Finish samples and mockups, built early so the architect and owner can approve a detail, a finish or a joint before production
Steel and architectural metal
- Structural steel
- Stairs, stringers and treads
- Railings and guardrails
- Architectural metal trim
- Armatures, brackets and art-hanging supports
- Lintels, headers and structural modifications for renovation
Why it matters to architects
Shop drawings from the people who build. Our drawings are prepared with the shop that will fabricate the piece and the crew that will install it. Questions about reveals, joinery, hardware, tolerances and how wood meets steel get answered in the drawings, not on site.
Design intent survives buyout. When millwork and metals are subcontracted on price, the drawings often come back “value engineered” into something simpler. When the builder makes the piece, there is no second company protecting its own margin, and the conversation stays between the architect and the people doing the work.
Wood and steel coordinated in one place. Many of the details architects care about most are hybrids: a walnut and steel stair, a bronze railing on a wood stair, millwork hung from a steel frame. With both shops under one roof, the connection is designed once and fabricated to fit.
Field changes are quick. Existing buildings rarely match the drawings. With our own shops, a field-measured adjustment is a phone call away, not a new submittal cycle with an outside fabricator. In renovations, the same shop fabricates the lintels, headers and structural steel that open up an old building and the finish pieces that go in afterwards.
Why it matters to owners and owner’s representatives
Schedule control. Custom millwork and metals are often on the critical path, and outside shops schedule our work around their other clients. Our shops schedule around our projects.
One accountable party. If a panel doesn’t line up with a railing, there’s no argument between two subcontractors about whose fault it is. The work is ours, and our project managers are based on site, so one person is accountable for it from award through closeout.
Transparent pricing. On construction manager at risk projects our shop work is priced open book like any other trade, with labor and material shown separately. On lump-sum work it gives us real numbers for the finish trades early in preconstruction, instead of allowances.
Care after completion. The same shop that built a piece can repair, refinish or extend it years later.
The kind of work we’re asked to build
Our projects show the level of detail architects bring to us: the walnut and steel stair screened by hand-cast resin at the Chelsea Townhouse, the silicon bronze stair railing and architectural metals at the West Village Townhouse, the walnut, bronze and travertine offices of the Riggio Foundation, and the custom wood cabinetry, stainless steel fencing and ironwood deck at St. Hilda’s & St. Hugh’s School.
When to involve us
The earlier the better, ideally at design development, when a mockup or a shop conversation can still shape a detail. If you’re an architect with a demanding millwork or metals package, or an owner’s representative looking for a general contractor who can carry the finish trades in-house, get in touch. We’re happy to walk you through the shops.
