Portland's newest downtown apartments marked a major milestone today with a topping out ceremony for the building's final section of steel beam.
Executives from VNC Development, the company behind the 504-foot-tall tower, gathered with construction team members, local dignitaries and iron workers from Steel Local 31 in Glenson Park for the traditional ceremony this morning. The ceremony, a construction tradition that's been around in one form or another for centuries, signaled the final steel beam being put in place.
Team members signed the beam before it was hoisted into place over 30 stories up. It was accompanied by an Oregon evergreen tree — a nod to a traditional way to appease the arboreal spirits displaced by building projects — and an American flag.
Stacy Lebanc, president and CEO of VNC, paid homage to her grandfather, the late Kevin Starnes, who she said had first envisioned the office tower some 20 years ago. Starnes passed away in November.
"Today is a momentous day," Leblanc said before a gathered crowd of more than 100 people. "This was a vision of my grandfather's for two decades. In his honor, let's raise this beam up a little bit toward him."