(COLORADO SPRINGS) — The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo (CMZoo) is set to celebrate a significant milestone on Wednesday, Oct. 22, with the placement of the final steel beam for the new International Center for the Care and Conservation of Giraffe.

The topping out ceremony, a tradition dating back over a thousand years, involves raising the final beam with a flag and an evergreen tree, symbols of progress, good fortune, and respect for the environment. The ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at 10:30 AM, and will include remarks from Mayor Yemi Mobolade and Bob Chastain.

The new facility will feature a 12,000 square-foot giraffe barn, an expanded giraffe yard, and a brand-new gift shop and cafe, all scheduled to open next summer. The expanded giraffe yard will be 25% larger, providing additional spaces for giraffes to explore. A new feeding tower is included in the design to encourage giraffes to navigate the hills of Cheyenne Mountain for the first time.

“If you’ve ever fed the giraffe on a cooler day in our current giraffe barn, you know the experience is fun, but it’s not as engaging as the experience of feeding them in their main yard, where they can come right up to you at eye-level,” Bob Chastain, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo president and CEO, says. “The new giraffe barn will provide a variety of indoor and outdoor opportunities to feed giraffe from different angles: face-to-face, from overhead, and from foot-level with a giraffe.”

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