The tower crane that has been towering over downtown Delaware now has a name: King Kong.
The 187-foot tower sits in the center of the construction site for Delaware County’s new judicial building. After being erected this summer, LendLease — the company managing the project — issued a call to local children to submit a name for the tower, which is manned each day by construction crew members who use the crane and its 213-foot-long “jib” arm to move heavy equipment and materials around the site, a news release states.
At a special ceremony Thursday, 12-year-old Audrey Sanders was introduced as the winner of the “Name the Crane” contest and a banner with the “King Kong” name emblazoned on it was unveiled. The banner has been installed on the fencing that faces North Sandusky Street and will stay there until later this winter when the crane is dissembled.
The new judicial building is expected to be completed by early summer 2017.
The Orange Township resident is the daughter of Sarah and Scott Sanders. She is a sixth-grade homeschool student.
“I picked the name because I thought, ‘Cranes are big and I think of King Kong as big,’” Audrey said before the ceremony. The banner also carries her nominating explanation: “I think of something really big swinging its arm over the city.”
Gary Rutledge, LendLease’s project executive, explained that Audrey joins an elite list of people around the world who have named tower cranes at LendLease’s construction sites. Some of those sites include Chicago and New York City, as well as Sydney, Paris and the London 2012 Olympic Village.
“We use tower cranes on compact sites where we don’t have a lot of room to move around,” Rutledge said. “And we like to engage the community where we build by having them name the crane.”
Rutledge said this is the first time a tower crane has been used in the city of Delaware.
The new, 3-story judicial building will measure nearly 95,000 square feet when completed with room for a two-level parking garage. The cost, most of which is being financed with construction bonds, is estimated at $38 million.
For information about Delaware County, visit: http://www.co.delaware.oh.us.
