Topping Out Ceremony

SCHOOL OF SOCIAL WORK
1255 AMSTERDAM AVENUE, NEW YORK, N.Y.
(Between 121st and 122nd Streets)

The Columbia University School of Social Work celebrated the "topping out" of its new building on Monday, April 21st, 2003, at 11:30 a.m. Ironworkers ceremonially laid a steel beam, decorated with an American flag and a small fir tree, atop the highest structural component of the project and celebrated this major milestone in the construction. Read more about "topping-out."

The celebration was attended by over 200 people, bringing together CUSSW alumni, faculty, administrators, members of the University administration and local Morningside Heights community. They were joined by the crew of construction workers and ironworkers. Bill David of Bovis Lend Lease and Jeanette Takamura, Dean of CUSSW, welcomed all to the celebration. Among the guest speakers were Jonathan Cole, CU Provost; Emily Lloyd, CU Executive Vice President for Administration; Mark Burstein, CU Vice President of Facilities; and Joan Gerner, Executive Vice President of Bovis Lend Lease. After the ceremony, the iron beam (painted white and signed by those who attended) was hoisted to the top of the structure and connected to the existing beams.

The new building is designed to provide a flexible environment for social work education and research at one of the oldest and most prestigious graduate schools in the nation. The building will serve as a premier laboratory where social workers will address the emerging community and social issues and concerns of the 21st century.