[hammersklavier]

New photo up at phillyskyline.com:

This here is just a quick stop down at the corner of 5th & Market to check out the latest topping off ceremony in town.

Not long ago, construction at the National Museum of American Jewish History reached its peak, so to speak. The steel frame of the handsome, if oddly oriented, five story building designed by James Polshek (who recently won acclaim for the Clinton Library in Little Rock), celebrated its topping off party with the traditional evergreen tree. Given the party's timing in the second week of January, one sensitive gentile asked me if this was an outrage, to be placing a Christmas tree atop a Jewish Museum so soon after the noose incident at Comcast Center. On the contrary, my dear Irish Catholic friend, it's not a Christmas tree at all, but a non-decorated evergreen tree as a symbol of life, accompanied by the American flag and, of course, the ceremonial final beam (which, generally speaking, usually has a banner with the local ironworkers union's insignia).

Local 401 has made quick work of the 5 story, 121 ft building, which will soon be sheathed in terra cotta on the north side and prismatic glass on the western side facing Independence Mall.

The NMAJH is scheduled to open next year. For more info on it, visit its web site HERE.

–B Love