The Last Beam

A few months ago, I celebrated the pouring of the last slab of concrete for our new Huntsman Hall (see “The LastSlab” post from the 24th of February). This past week, we reached another “the last” milestone – the last beam. Beams are the structural steel that supports the building. Workers installed the last beam on Wednesday and Thursday of last week.

This symbolizes the final step of completing the structure of the building. Granted, most of the structure was installed months ago – especially on the west wing of the building and the south wing of the building. We’ve really been building three different buildings – the two wings are two of the buildings, and the curved space that connects the two wings, and houses the cafeteria, the student lounges, and other spaces, is the third building. This third space has lagged the other two due to space and construction constraints.

The location of the last beam is above the grand entrance at the SW corner of the building. It connects to, and supports, the grand staircase (see “Stairway to Heaven” postings dated 13 Aug2014 and 14 April 2015).

I have attached some photos from the perspective of being inside the new building looking out. Enjoy one more milestone in the progress of Huntsman Hall!

Ken Snyder