Beam-Signing Ceremony Collects Signatures for Posterity.
Click on the image to watch a video of JGI and KBase staff signing the final beam that will “top off” the Integrative Genomics Building at the JGI.
On Friday, June 22, JGI Director Nigel Mouncey and Systems Biology Knowledgebase (KBase) CEO/CSO Adam Arkin gathered JGI and KBase staff for a historic ceremony.
“The last time we convened together was 18 months ago to break ground,” Mouncey reminded the audience, referring to the January 2017 groundbreaking ceremony at Berkeley Lab for the future colocation of JGI and KBase at the Integrative Genomics Building (IGB). “We’re here today to kick off what we hope is a yearlong celebration, and one that will lead to JGI and KBase at the IGB. We’re here today to take pen to steel.”
The signed steel beam upon its return from the JGI. (Paul Mueller)
In his remarks, Mouncey referred to the tradition of signing the ultimate beam before it is hoisted into place on top of the building. This tradition was broken down into components, with the final beam spending 24 hours away from the IGB construction site so that JGI and KBase staff could sign it in Walnut Creek. Stickers which bore signatures of stakeholders who could not be in California, ranging from DOE Office of Science managers to the JGI’s Plant Program team at the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama and the KBase team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, were also on hand to be added during the ceremony.
“We all can now appreciate how much work is entailed in getting a brand-new building on one of the most coveted pieces of level real estate at Berkeley Lab,” Mouncey said before he and Arkin signed the beam and invited the audience to append their signatures.
Immediately following the short ceremony, the beam made the trip back to the site so that the construction workers could sign as well. Click here to watch a video of the beam signing ceremony, which includes a time-lapse clip of the beam’s trip back to the IGB site. Click here to see photos from the beam signing ceremony in Walnut Creek, as well as time-lapse videos from the beam’s trip. The beam will be hoisted into place at the IGB in the next few weeks.