City Tech holds topping off ceremony for $400M complex
The New York City College of Technology’s new $400 million academic complex going up in Downtown Brooklyn reached a major milestone on Monday when the school held a “topping-off” ceremony to mark that the final steel beam has been placed upon the structure.
“This whole thing has been inspirational for us because the college has been waiting for this building for a long time,” said City Tech’s President Dr. Russell K. Hotzler. “We’re more than 10 years into the project. It took us many years to get the funding together so we’re very excited to see this happen. This is the most important thing to ever happen in the history of the school.”
The final beam, which was painted white and signed by all officials on hand as well as the site’s construction workers, did not actually go atop the building during the ceremony. It is expected to go up within the next few days as there are still a few more beams to be put in place. Nonetheless, it was a celebratory event for everyone involved.
Standing at one of the busiest intersections in Brooklyn (the corner of Jay and Tillary streets) the project cost a little more than $400 million, according to Hotzler. Joseph Mizzi, president of Sciame Construction, said it has taken an average of 100 workers nine months to remove 50,000-cubic-yards of earth from 35-feet below the ground to place more than 4,500 pieces of steel that weighed at least 4,600 tons to get to this point.