![Andrew Siebengartner
'03 excelled in the John Dewey Honors program and hopes to share his love of classical languages with the next generation of students and scholars.
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Participants were invited to sign two beams, which were then hoisted atop the Davis Center.
6.15.06 DAVIS CENTER TOPPING OFF
On June 15, students, faculty, staff, members of the Burlington community, and family of the late Dudley H. Davis gathered next to the student center construction site to celebrate the building's nearly completed steel structure in a "topping off ceremony," a construction tradition that dates back to medieval Scandinavia.
Leading the celebration of the Dudley H. Davis Center's progress, was President Daniel Mark Fogel, who referred to the building, the first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified student center in the nation, as the "single element most powerfully driving the transformation of UVM."
Designed to create a new front door to the campus along Burlington's Main Street, the Davis Center will include offices for student organizations; a campus pub/bistro and a 700-seat dining facility; conference and meeting rooms; lounge space; an expanded University bookstore, and other retail shops and service locations.
After remarks from Board of Trustees Chair Carl Lisman, Burlington Mayor Bob Kiss, and SGA Vice President Ajay Schmidt, members of the audience were invited to sign two yellow steel beams with green pens before construction workers hoisted and secured the beams to the roof along with a small, living pine tree, a common element in the modern topping off ceremony.
While the tradition has strayed a bit from the Viking practice of laying sheathes of grain on the building, the intent — that of celebrating our accomplishments and bestowing good luck on the structure and its future occupants — remains the same.
According to President Fogel, with the steel structure of the building 95 percent complete, the concrete footers 45 percent complete, and work on the slate and copper roof beginning later this month, the Davis Center is on schedule for a fall 2007 opening.