Press Releases

June 20, 2008

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MERRILLVILLE — Up ... up ... and it stays!
By Piet Levy Post-Tribune staff writer

A crowd of onlookers watch the scene at the corner of 84th Avenue and Virginia Street in Merrillville as a large crane lifted the architectural decoration, called a circlet, and put it in place on top of the new Centier Centre early Thursday morning.

Stephanie Dowell/Post-Tribune

It’s not every day a 50-plus ton, crown-like object is suspended in the air, then placed atop a five-story building like a cherry on top of a sundae.

But that’s what happened Thursday, as about 100 people watched the most dramatic element of Merrillville’s newest building put into place.

The “circlet” symbolizes the near completion of the Centier Centre construction project. The building will serve as headquarters for Centier Bank when it opens in August.

The 72,000-square-feet Centre has been in the planning stages since 2005, said Carol Highsmith, senior partner for Centier and project manager.

Design work started in early 2006, with the groundbreaking in February 2007.

The circlet was designed and created over a nine-month period, according to Centier Bank marketing officer Angela Jimenez

“This was a really critical piece for this building,” Highsmith said after the circlet was placed on the roof. “We just wanted something on the building that would make it a focal point.” Project manager Jonah Besch of Berglund Construction’s Chesterton office has worked on Chicago skyscrapers. But he’s particularly proud to create a building unique in these parts, particularly because of the circlet.

“To see it come to fruition today is an incredible feeling,” said Besch, a Porter resident. “It's a 16-month labor of love and hopefully it’s a landmark-type building.”

Work inside the Centre was prohibited while the circlet was being installed. So employees from Sweney Electric of Merrillville decided to make a tailgate party out of the event, gathering around a pickup truck, the bed loaded with coffee and doughnuts, about 5:30 a.m., when the circlet was supposed to be lifted. Readjustments had to be made to the angle of the crane, causing the delay. “It’s the accumulation of a lot of work,” said Sweney’s Tom Niermeyer, the project manager. “At first I thought it was too big for the building, but it’s very proportional.”

Sweney’s task now will be to light the circlet at night, so it can be visible from a mile away, Niermeyer said.

Beth Dickson, who works at nearby Comcast Spotlight, wasn’t sure what to make of the circlet as it was being raised in the air. “It’s, um, different,” Dickson said. She said she expected it would look better after it was finished, and especially once it’s illuminated at night.

Contact Piet Levy at 648-3102 or plevy@post-trib.com. Comment at www.post-trib.com