Business & Tech

Final Beam Placed on New Keurig Headquarters with 'Topping Out' Ceremony

The final beam was placed at the top of the new Keurig headquarters, which is set to open in July 2014.

Yesterday marked a big landmark in the construction of the new Keurig Headquarter office building at 53 South Avenue. 

The final beam was placed on the top of the building with a traditional "topping out" ceremony. 

Scott Weiss, Managing Director of Commercial Development for the Gutierrez Company, the site developer and owner, said the new Keurig headquarters will be completed in July of 2014. Another building located next door that was renovated and had an addition attached is now open and employees are conducting research and development there. 

Keurig and Burlington worked out a tax incentive agreement that was approved by Town Meeting in May of 2012. Keurig, a division of the Green Mountain Coffee Roasters, currently has its headquarters in Reading. 

The new office building for Keurig is 275,000 square feet, Weiss explained. Phase I is a 150,000 sf research and development facility that was completed in six months and occupied in January of this year. 

"This project represents the successful fruition of cooperative efforts between The Gutierrez Company and the Town of Burlington since Town Meeting approval and shows what can be accomplished when we work together," Weiss said. 

Topping Out Ceremony

As you'll see in the video, there is a tree on top of the final beam as it was placed on the building. This is part of a tradition known as a Topping Out Ceremony. 

According to Wikipedia, the Topping Out ceremony is an ancient Scandinavian practice of "placing a tree on the top of a new building to appease the tree-dwelling spirits of their ancestors that had been displace." The practice has been adopted by construction workers in greater Europe and the United States. 

Once construction is complete the tree will be removed and planted on site. 

Other parts of the tradition include painting the last beam white and having everyone who worked on the building sign it. Often a flag, as in this case, is also attached to the beam. 


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