Media Contact:
Mick Kulikowski, News Services, 919/515-3470

Sept. 16, 2004

NC State Visitor Center to Get “Topped Out” in Ceremony on Friday

With the installation of the final steel beam, North Carolina State University will “top out” its soon-to-be front door – the E. Carroll Joyner Visitor Center and Advancement Services Building – during a ceremony at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, Sept. 17, in the lobby of the Jane S. McKimmon Center at the intersection of Western Boulevard and Gorman Street.

Media coverage of the topping-out ceremony is invited. Parking will be available in the McKimmon Center.

The building will contain about 27,000 square feet of space, including 2,200 square feet of exhibit space – with interactive multimedia kiosks and displays – for visitors to peruse. As the new gateway to the university, the building will be first stop for prospective students and their families, and will introduce NC State and its colleges, curricula, research, extension programs and people to newcomers. It is expected that more than 25,000 people will visit the building each year.

The building is named for E. Carroll Joyner, a 1956 graduate of NC State and former vice president for real estate development for the Golden Corral Restaurant chain. Joyner received an honorary degree from NC State in 2003, and received the university’s highest non-academic award – the Watauga Medal – in 1994. He is the founder of the N.C. Cattlemen’s Foundation, charter member of the Richard Stanhope Pullen Society at NC State and a former member of the board of directors for the NC State Veterinary Medical Foundation.

Part of the University of North Carolina Higher Education Bond Referendum, passed by the state’s citizens in 2000, the $5.1 million building is scheduled for completion in June 2005. Construction began earlier this year.

The building will also house University Advancement offices and a satellite admissions office.

The topping-out ceremony is a centuries-old Scandinavian tradition. In addition to celebrating the installation of the last beam, the tradition also calls for placing a small tree on top of the last beam to grant good luck to the building and its occupants. In keeping with that tradition, event guests will receive a pine seedling grown in NC State’s greenhouses by the Cooperative Tree Improvement Program.

- kulikowski -