EEEL building tops offThe campus community celebrated the work done to date on the Energy Environment Experiential Learning building Thursday with the pouring of the last bucket of concrete onto the roof.
The topping-off ceremony had more than 300 construction workers, project members, faculty and staff in attendance. U of C President Harvey Weingarten and Vince Davoli, senior vice-president at EllisDon West, marked the official last pour of concrete with the ceremonial placing of a flag in the bucket.
The EEEL building is scheduled to open January 2011 and will accommodate 1,000 students in engineering, environment, energy and science disciplines. The U of C hasn't built a major lab facility in many years, but with EEEL, the university will add 36 new labs to its complement.
The EEEL construction is part of the university's $1-billion capital expansion, which is one of the most aggressive among Canada's universities, and will improve the environment in which students learn and respond to the changing needs in our society for highly educated graduates in key areas of the economy.
View an audio slideshow about EEEL.
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President Harvey Weingarten thanks the workers for their efforts in bringing the building in on time and budget. Ellis Don treated all the trades to lunch for the topoff ceremony. |
President Weingarten cuts the cake with a little direction from one of the tradesmen. |
President Weingarten (right) and Vincent Davoli, senior VP Westen Operations for EllisDon, pull the lever on the last bucket of concrete for the EEEL building. / Photos: Ken Bendiktsen
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December 4, 2009