Topping Out Comes Off With No Black Flag

The $25-million Crown Plaza office building at 631 S. Olive St. has been topped out and all went well--there’s a fir tree on top and no black flag is flying.

According to the developer, English & Continental Property Group, the traditional topping-out ceremony goes back into antiquity, with the ridgepole or highest structural member adorned with a green tree for luck. Unless the workmen aren’t given enough food and beer, in which case they run up a black flag and put a curse on the building, then it will never prosper.

That’s an eventuality easy to avoid and the developer avoided it. The nine-story, 100,000-square-foot building is scheduled for completion in March, 1986, and is aimed at smaller tenants, those requiring 5,000 to 10,000 square feet.

The architect is Arthur Erickson and the builder is Swinerton & Walberg.