Garry Struthers Associates
Specialty: Engineering, environmental science, construction management and remedial construction services; specializing in water, wastewater, environmental transportation
Principals: Garry Struthers, president and CEO; Jan Rosholt, senior vice president
Founded: 1989
Headquarters: Bellevue
2003 revenues: $20 million (for the main company and its associate companies)
Projected 2004 revenues: $20 million
Largest current projects: Phase one demolition plan for Sound Transit light-rail; construction safety management for Sound Transit segments C710, C755 and C735
The mix of projects for Garry Struthers Associates of Bellevue has been stirred over the past year, adding larger portions of local building and renovation contracts and international work as environmental work has declined, President and CEO Garry Struthers said.
“Renovation work has shifted dramatically, increasing along with our vertical construction projects — about half in the country and half overseas — while environment clean-up work has been less,” he said.
GSA’s work includes water and wastewater pipelines, pump stations and treatment facilities, landfills, solid waste facilities, transportation design and planning, as well as building construction, particularly projects complicated by environmental issues. Current jobs include Sound Transit’s light-rail development and King County’s Brightwater treatment facility.
The company is a leader among minority-owned engineering firms in the Northwest dealing with complex design projects involving technological and environmental issues.
The Bellevue firm, with offices in Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C., is finishing port work in Lisbon, Portugal; another construction project has begun in Frankfurt that could last two to three years and new contracts are expected in Korea. Other overseas work has been focused on public service projects in the Caribbean and landfill work in Mexico. The company’s Web site includes Spanish and Korean language sections.
“Our international work is the result of a focus we’ve had the past 10 years. Seeing the local economy go up and down so much we wanted to weather those downturns better by working in other countries to keep our people busy. Also, it’s a way to do more diverse and interesting work that takes advantage of their full skill sets, broadens their horizons and increases their capabilities,” he said.
The firm’s Bellevue headquarters has a staff of 40 but total employment runs between 130 and 150, depending on fluctuations in project volume. With five new building contracts beginning this fall, Struthers said employment should reach 150 “or a little more” by the end of the year.
He’s pleased not only that increasing international work “drives our revenues up” but also that “we’re not working in any of those ugly places, so we have nobody in harm’s way ... people have asked us to be involved (in global hotspots) but we’re just not interested.”