Chelmsford celebrated another significant step towards educational excellence today with a topping out ceremony at Anglia Ruskin University's new Faculty Building.

It has taken just 10 months for Witham-based contractor Kier Eastern, part of the Kier Group, to construct the distinctive £15m curved building on the new Rivermead campus.

Standing four storeys high and stretching 90m in length, the innovative building is the latest development in a multi-million pound project which will see the university move from Central Campus to the fast-moving Rivermead area in time for the new academic year in autumn 2008. This will have the dual benefit of providing world-class educational facilities on a single site, while freeing up space in the town centre for a regeneration project to support the burgeoning university town.

When Rivermead is finished, Chelmsford will boast one of the most striking and dynamic campus infrastructures in the UK.

To celebrate this and the successful completion of the building envelope, Kier Eastern joined forces with the university to organise a topping out ceremony on the rooftop.

Managing director of Kier Eastern Graham Howe began the proceedings by placing a fir tree on the roof to symbolise good luck to future occupants.

Chair of Anglia Ruskin University's Board of Governors Kate Barker then ceremoniously laid the final zinc capping.

Live images of the event were broadcast to guests in the Tindal Refectory below and to onlookers at the University's sister site in Cambridge.

The new Faculty Building is located between the Tindal student centre and the Mildmay sports centre and is close to the new £8m Faculty of Health and Social Care building.

When complete it will house the University's Faculty of Science and Technology and the Faculty of Arts, Law and Social Sciences.

Designed by RH Architects, it will include classrooms, specialist teaching spaces, a 150-seat lecture theatre and administrative areas for the Department of the Built Environment, the Department of Computing and the School of Law. The building will also be a home for Registry, the Office of Student Affairs and Communications and IT services.

The new building is due for completion on 19 May 2008 with occupation ready for the new academic year 2008/9. The next phase of the Rivermead development will involve the creation of a new Arts and Commercial Quarter.

Kier Eastern is widely recognised for delivering excellence as standard within the educational sector and is involved with a number of developments in the Eastern region.

Recently completed work includes the new Social Sciences Research Building at the University of Essex, and new library facilities at the University of East Anglia. Current work includes the construction of the new Gateway Academy at Thurrock, the Oasis Academy at Enfield, Harlow College, five new primary schools under the Norwich Schools PFI Project and a major extension and remodelling of the John Fisher RC School in Peterborough.