Global Center for Grain and Food Innovation Beam Signing & Topping Out Milestones

The Global Center for Grain and Food Innovation Beam Signing was held on Thursday, May 1, and Topping Out event on Friday, May 2, 2025. Students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors and stakeholders left their mark by signing a beam that was later placed on the structure during the Topping Out celebration. Light refreshments were also served and attendees took home a metal dough scraper with an outline of the new facility. There were nearly 500 attendees who participated in the beam signing and topping out events.

The Topping Out event is inspired from a Scandinavian tradition of placing a pine tree on top of a new building to acknowledge the trees cut down in the demolition and construction process. The facility's contractor, Whiting-Turner, shared with attendees their celebration of placing the final beam and the impact of building on campus with 9 out of their 12 core leadership team as K-State alumni.