Chicago Journal

Top O’ the Building to You

At the Interdivisional Research Building’s (IRB) April 19 topping-off ceremony, a symbolic raising of the structure’s final girder, the beam, signed by construction workers, students, researchers, and administrators, carried U.S. and POW-MIA flags—and a potted fir. Medieval European carpenters crowned new wooden buildings with a tree to seek the forest god’s blessing on the structure and its inhabitants.

Photo by Dan Dry