Future Maple Street Correctional Center 'Topped Off' in Redwood City

The following is a news release from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office:

[Thursday] morning, local dignitaries joined together with the variety of tradesman involved in the construction of the Maple Street Correctional Center, to celebrate a momentous step forward towards the project’s completion.

This celebrated event was the placing of the final beam of steel in the building’s construction. The practice of “topping off” a new building has historical significance as superstition states that the placing of a tree on the highest beam in a construction project will ward off bad spirits.

Tradition suggests that the last beam in the project be painted white and signed by everyone involved in the construction and that is just what took place at our constriction site [Thursday] morning. San Mateo County Sheriff Greg Munks was joined by Supervisor Adrienne Tissier, at which time they thanked each worker for their service and handed each one a tee shirt and pen as a symbolic appreciation of their contributions.

After the beam was signed by workers and dignitaries alike, the beam with an Evergreen sapling affixed, was hoisted up by a crane to be placed on top of the building for all to see. Upon completion of the project, the sapling will be planted in the exterior of the Correctional Center to grow and thrive into the future!