More than 12,000 tons of steel. That’s how much steel has gone into the Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center, a key Cleveland development that celebrated its official “topping out” ceremony on June 22.
A “topping out” ceremony is a big moment during the construction process. It celebrates the installation of the last steel beam of a project. This particular steel beam will be marked by an evergreen tree decoration, a symbol of growth and good luck. The U.S. flag and the signatures from ironwokers and construction crews will also mark this beam.
The Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center is an important building for this Ohio city. The hope is that the new mall and convention center will inspire additional development in the heart of Cleveland.
Turner Construction Company, the developer of the project, sent out some interesting information about the new mall and convention center. For one thing, if you placed all the steel beams in the project end to end, they would stretch all the way from Cleveland to Cincinnati.
Turner also said that it would take 17 football fields to fill the entire facility once it is complete. In all, the project will cover 1 million square feet.
By the way, Turner also included a brief history of the “topping out” ceremony. “Topping out” is an ancient European tradition symbolized by tying a fir tree to the top of a newly completed roof. U.S. steelworkers adopted the practice to mark that whatever structure they are building has reached its zenith with no loss of life.
