News
Topping-out ceremony for new academic building
University staff joined architects and construction workers today (Wednesday 15 June) to mark the completion of the new academic building's superstructure.
Project manager Philip Goldsmith, from contractor Morgan Sindall, helped the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Michael Farthing, to lay the last section of concrete during the traditional topping-out ceremony.
"It's better, I think, than we ever imagined," said Professor Farthing. "You can look at models, but it's only when you go on site that you get a sense of the real scale of it. It's just fantastic. This is going to be a centerpiece of campus."
The Vice-Chancellor had already had a sneak preview of the site last week, when he donned a hard hat and high-vis jacket for a tour that took in the curved concrete shell of the building's 500-seat lecture theatre.
The new academic building will house the School of Law, Politics and Sociology and the School of Business, Management and Economics.
After the topping-out ceremony, some of the staff who will move in in 2012 had their first opportunity to view the four-storey structure. They were shown round the lower two floors (where the teaching and seminar rooms will be located), and the upper two floors (where the academic and support space will be).
For more information about the project, see www.sussex.ac.uk/efm/nab