PHOTOS: SFA’s New Forestry and Agriculture Building Topping Out Ceremony

You know that we've been keeping up with the construction progress of the new Arthur Temple College of Forestry and Agriculture building on the Stephen F. Austin State University campus. It's been going up surprisingly fast.

Well, they've now reached a huge construction milestone of the new building, and they celebrated the milestone with a really cool event for the forestry and agriculture students, faculty and staff.

Topping Out Beam Signing

The milestone that was reached was the placement of the final structural beam. It's the final beam that's placed at the top of the structure. To celebrate this, there was a "Topping Out Beam Signing" where all of the students, faculty and staff within the college of forestry and agriculture were invited to sign the beam before it was permanently put in place. And, in true Deep East Texas fashion, it was lifted and placed with a pine tree on it. It was kind of the "cherry on top" moment for the celebration.

READ MORE: Exciting Progress on SFA's College of Forestry and Agriculture

I don't know much about construction tradition, but apparently a Topping Out Ceremony is something that is very commonplace in projects like this. So, in staying with tradition, SFA put their logo on the beam, signed it, and it was put in place.

One Step Closer to Completion

With the placement of that final piece, it just shows that they're one step closer to completing the forestry and agriculture building completely. It was originally slated for a 2027 completion. I don't know if that is still the same timeline or not, but I know that it's moving quickly. This isn't just a big step for SFA, but for Nacogdoches and Deep East Texas in general. It's exciting!

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I was lucky enough to get some pictures of the Topping Out Ceremony, though. Take a look: