On the day the renovation of the main street Khreshchatyk was completed the weather was exceptionally good.
The autumnal sun lit up the golden domes of the churches and sparkles of reflections danced on the ground.
Crowds of people of all ages streamed to the central thoroughfare of Kyiv burning with desire to see what it looked like after the renovation. Those who were poetically inclined might have thought it to be symbolic that the renovation took place at the threshold of the twenty first century and the renovated street could be looked upon as a road into the future.

The company, commissioned to carry out the work, was Kyivmiskbud-6. The staff of this open joint-stock company, headed by Ivan Ye. Danilenko, a full member of the Academy of Construction of Ukraine and a bearer of the honorific title of the Merited Builder of Ukraine, fully realized what a responsible task it was facing. And the Kyivmiskbud-6 once again proved that the Company was able not only to do the job well but on time.

It was also amply demonstrated that there was no need to turn for help to a foreign company.
The work continued day and night, never stopping, and everyday any observer could see the progress. Every flagstone was to be carefully put in its place by hands. The paving stones were specially designed for the sidewalks of Khreshchatyk and had to be handled with care.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 Company has been in existence for four decades now. It was set up in 1961 as a separate general contractor of the Golovkyivmiskbud (“Kyiv Main City Construction Company”; it has been renamed and restructured and now it is called Kyivmiskbud Holding Company). At the time of the foundation it was a trust and its task was to carry out construction and repairs.

The Trust had four construction companies working within its framework. Since 1961 the Trust (in recent years renamed Kyivmiskbud-6) has built over 1,800 industrial, agricultural, research, educational, electric power, house maintenance facilities and facilities of other kinds. The bulk of the construction work has been done since 1980.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 Company has built, among so many other things, the following facilities: the Institute of Superhard Materials; Kyiv Hippodrome; National TV Centre with a steel tower 384 meters high; Ice Rink Stadium; Press of Ukraine Complex; Podilsky and Pechersky Market Places; Dytyachy Svit (“Children's World”) Department store; Electric Trolleybus Depot; Troyeshchyna Shopping Centre. Incidentally, all of these facilities are extremely useful for the inhabitants of Kyiv.

The Assumption Cathedral will rise to its former glory.

Work in Khreshchatyk went on day and night.

The Company won the tender for the renovation of the Palats Ukrayina (“Ukraine Palace”) Concert Hall. But the renovation was to be completed within a very short period of time. Ivan Danylenko, the Chairman of the Company's Board, examined the site and became firmly convinced that the Kyivmiskbud-6 could do it, and within the specified time, providing good workmanship and making sure the Hall would be absolutely safe to use afterwards.

It was a daunting task. The Ukrayina Concert Hall had been in use for three decades without any major repairs done. The supporting metal structure had been badly affected by rust, the roof needed to be mended.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 did everything on time though it required its outmost effort. There were hundreds of problems to be solved as the renovation moved on, and with no time for long deliberations.

In 1998 the Kyivmiskbud-6 has once again proven its high efficiency and true professionalism. The Company has come out from the new tests with flying colours.

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development had decided to have an annual meeting of its Board of Governors in Kyiv which was a way of showing that the Bank recognized the achievements of independent Ukraine on the road to a reformed economy. Kyiv wanted to do its best to play a good host to the VIP guests.

Kyiv Mayor O.Omelchenko, Head of the Administration of the President of Ukraine Yevhen Kushnariov, Kyivmiskbud Chairman I. Danylenko and other officials at the unveiling ceremony.

 An indoor vegetable market in Kyiv.

The lobby of the Ukrayina Palace Concert Hall.


Dytyachy Svit department store.

Kyiv Mayor Olexandr Omelchenko and Kyivmiskbud Chairman Ivan Danylenko discussing problems of reconstruction of the Kyiv central street.

In 1945, when the work began, the construction workers could use only the debris to lay the new foundation of the main street, the houses along which had been almost totally destroyed in bombings and shellings. So many years after the post-war reconstruction the city authorities realized at last that Khreshchatyk needed an urgent renovation which involved not only laying the new asphalt on the road and paving the sidewalks but instalment of new pipes for the heating and sewage systems, water main, telephone cables, etc. The facades and the roofs of the houses lining the street were to be repaired too.

Some new technologies were used when the new asphalt surfacing was being laid out. Special ingredients were used to ensure proper and fast binding between the oilbitumen and the mineral part. The central lanes of the Khreshchatyk were covered with special reddish asphalt and the side lines with dark-grey. The height of the lamp poles increased by four meters and they were given the appearance they had been meant to have in the original reconstruction project.

The four underground passages, the biggest in Kyiv (at the European Square, the Maidan Nezalezhnosti Square, the Bohdan Khmelnytsky Street and the Prorizna Street) underwent very considerable changes.

The walls were faced with highly polished gray granite, granite plates were used for the staircases too. The floors were paved with intricately shaped flagstones. The steps were provided with an electric heating system that should prevent ice forming on them in winter. Modern design made the passages look very attractive. The new lighting system was installed. Walking down into these underground passages, one finds oneself in a world very much different from the one of the surface. Shops, unexpected turns, soft orange-yellowish lighting give the underground passages an appearance of underground towns, a little mysterious.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 has done its job well. It took only two months to do what could have taken nineteen (as it had been originally planned). Kreshchatyk has been transformed into a central street worthy of a European capital.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 does not rest on laurels. It goes on working as energetically as before. At the moment the renovation work of the Hrushevsky street, one of the most beautiful streets of Kyiv, is nearing completion. A new hospital in the Troyeshchyna part of town is being built with the use of the newest technologies. A new indoor ice rink stadium is being built close to the open-air Ice Rink Stadium.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 has been commissioned to raise from the ruins the Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra Monastery (Of the Caves). The Cathedral was ruined in 1941, in the early months of the war. This outstanding architectural landmark is to be brought up to its former glory.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 makes its own valuable contribution to the establishment of Ukraine as a full-fledged member of the world community.

At present, the Kyivmiskbud-6 is made of seven companies one of which specializes in decoration and finishing work. Besides, the Kyivmiskbud-6 has a special industrial-technological subsidiary with its own facilities. The subsidiary manufactures metal support structures, fittings, fixtures and does carpentry and joinery work.

There are no construction or renovation tasks that the Kyivmiskbud-6 would not be able to handle. The Company welcomes any offers, no matter how hard they might be. Any idea, any project can be realized. The Kyivmiskbud-6 can turn a vague inception into a palpable reality. The Kyivmiskbud-6 knows how to use properly the usual and traditional building, decoration and finishing materials as well as the most sophisticated ones.

The Kyivmiskbud-6 invites Ukrainian and foreign companies to cooperation. Together with the Kyivmiskbud-6-into the new millennium without risk and without problems!

By Anna Machynska