A ‘topping out’ ceremony has been held 230ft above the Birmingham skyline to celebrate a major milestone in the construction of office development Two Snowhill.
The rooftop ceremony marked the building reaching its highest point, less than 12 months since work recommenced on site, and drew the project a step closer to its completion in January 2013.
More than 35 people attended the event, including representatives from Hines and Ballymore and contractors Balfour Beatty, to thank the workforce and fill in the final piece of concrete. A yew tree was also placed upon the structure to bring good luck to the building.
Dave Tighe, project director at Balfour Beatty, said: “This ceremony not only provided a landmark event for the development of Two Snowhill, but for the further development of Birmingham. A project of this scale can only be achieved when all parties work together, so I would like to thank the workforce for getting us to this significant milestone.
“To get to this stage it has taken 3,000 tonnes of steel, 5,000 m3 of concrete, 800 workers directly employed on site and 10,000 people indirectly involved with the scheme.”
Two Snowhill, which is located in the Colmore Business District, will be the only new office building to be delivered to the market until at least 2015. The 14-storey building will provide more than 300,000 sq ft of Grade A office accommodation, of which 120,000 sq ft is available to let, as well as retail and leisure space.
Simon Jenner, director at Hines UK, said: “The topping out represents a major milestone in the construction of Two Snowhill. The team from Balfour Beatty and everyone else involved on the project have done a fantastic job in getting the building to this stage on schedule and in less than a year since work restarted on site.
“Two Snowhill is a landmark building and we are looking forward to its practical completion in January and welcoming the first tenants later in the year.”
Joint agents for the development are CBRE and GBR Phoenix Beard.