Bystanders watch as an American Flag, a beam and an evergreen are raised into the air by crane on Thursday afternoon as part of the topping out ceremony which occurred at Gould Hall. Meredith Moriak/The Daily

Construction workers and project team members joined faculty, staff and students from the College of Architecture on the South Oval Thursday afternoon to celebrate hitting the halfway point of construction on Gould Hall.

During a topping-out ceremony, which signifies the final beam being placed on a building, an American flag, an evergreen tree and a broom accompanied the final beam.

The flag means the building was made by Americans with American materials, said Kirk Mammen, manager of the project for FlintCo, Inc., the general contractor for the Gould Hall. The tree signifies growth and the broom stand for a clean sweep of construction, with no injuries.

“Topping out is an important milestone in the life of a project,” said Charles Graham, dean of the College of Architecture.

Mammen said construction on the project has gone smoothly and the building is expected to be completed Jan. 6, 2011.

“Construction has gone well despite an unusually wet late summer and early fall,” Mammen said.

Due to the rain, workers lost about a month of building time but are only a week behind schedule, Mammen said.

The Gould Hall renovation began in January and presented interesting challenges like most older buildings do, Mammen said.

Approximately 25,000 additional square feet were added to the existing building, bringing the total square footage to approximately 135,000, Mammen said.

The building was originally constructed in 1950 and began housing the OU College of Architecture in 1989, Graham said.

“You will see a brand new facade around the entire building,” Mammen said. “The existing wings will look brand new and the added square footage will bring the building closer to the [South] Oval.”

Classes occasionally visit the construction site where students are able to offer their prospective and participate in hands-on learning, Mammen said.

Graham said he is looking forward to the completion of Gould Hall and housing all five divisions of the college in one building, something that has never been done before.

Currently, the architecture, construction science and interior design divisions are located north of campus on Main Street, while the landscape architecture and regional planning divisions are located in Carnegie Hall on the main campus.