Some more facts about Hotel Rossiya:

Began operating in January 1967. It’s composed of 3 - 12-story buildings with one rising 21 stories high and houses 2700 hotel suites. Besides hotel rooms, also house the Rossiya concert hall, a movie theater, and several restaurants and nightclubs Its huge bulk also breaks up a very historical part of Moscow, obscuring small churches and buildings.


At 240,000-square-meter Rossiya, located on a 13-hectare site just 100 meters from the Kremlin, is 100 percent owned by the City of Moscow.

Built in 1967 in order to accommodate the delegates of Communist Party congresses, the glass and concrete structure consists of three 12-story buildings and one 21-story building, which, besides hotel rooms, also house the Rossiya concert hall, a movie theater, and several restaurants and nightclubs.

Also here is a link to the original story on the implosion of the building "no one" knew about: http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles...demolition.htm

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The demolition contract is worth USD $40 million. I can only imagine what it was like in it's heyday. It had a 2 story go cart racing track in it and a huge strip club. On every even numbered floor they had 4 restaurants. There weren't any blueprints available on it either. I guess it really didn't matter much, they would all be in Russian anyway!
I don't think most people realize it, but the American demolition market is tiny compared to Russia. For example, in the next year and a half 9,000 high rise public housing buildings are going to be demolished in Moscow alone! It makes sense because during the communist regime ALL housing was public housing. They have a name for these buildings which is "Khrushchyuki".

Has the contract been awarded yet?

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Contracts are kind of 'loosey goosey". Even though the building is owned by the city the project wasn't competively bid as we are used to. It looks like the development rights to the site are going to be awarded to a consortium with an American partner. The rumour is that they are going to build an entertainment complex with 5 hotels at a cost of USD$2 Billion.

What's the story on Russian demo contractors? I know of one company that advertises, but their name escapes me. It seems like a wide open market for aspiring locals to tap.

It's a huge market. One thing I did notice over there is that it seems like most of the contractors operate Liebherr equipment. I never did see a Russian built excavator.

Liehberr's good stuff, though. The air cooled Deutz inline 6 is powerhouse of an engine.
I ran one during a heat wave in MS (go figure) and it outran all of the water cooled equipment on the jobsite.
I woudl love to get over there and soak up some of the history. I've always been very interested in preSoviet Ruassian history.

I stand partially coreccted. I just received an e-mail that states that there are 3 domestic manufacturers of excavators in Russia. Ivanova, AO and Kraneks and that they sell for approximately 1/2 the price of similiar modes built elsewhere.

I stand corrected. The final contract price for the demolition of this hotel is USD$22million and is being performed by Satori. They already have one of the wings partially removed