BACK TO EVENT ARCHIVE Topping-out ceremony

Raatuse Residences: Phase 1 Topping-Out

The first phase of Raatuse Residences celebrated its topping-out ceremony in Tartu on 17 December 2025. Anti Soosaar’s photographs follow the activity around the wreath and the gathering inside the unfinished building.

DATE: 17 December 2025
PLACE: Raatuse 45 and Pikk 39, Tartu, Estonia
EVENT: Topping-out ceremony
PHOTOGRAPHS: 27

Three men in hard hats hold a topping-out wreath pole on a rooftop while one saws through it by hand.

ABOUT THE SERIES

The first phase of Vallikraavi Kinnisvara’s development comprised two six-storey apartment buildings with commercial premises and an underground car park, with Rand & Tuulberg as the contractor. The photographs from the site at Raatuse 45 and Pikk 39 record one milestone in that work: the topping-out ceremony.

On the roof, people hold and saw the wreath’s wooden pole and handle crane chains; the wreath also hangs high beneath the crane. Inside the concrete rooms, food tables and heaters are ready for the gathering. Helmets, high-visibility clothing, a temporary wooden staircase and the light of a gas torch keep the occasion connected to the everyday construction site.

Raatuse Residences development · The builder’s project overview

FULL GALLERY

27 photographs

A building wrapped in scaffold sheeting, with a tower crane and a topping-out wreath above it.

Two people in high-visibility jackets work beside a green carpeted walkway, one holding a coil of black cable.

Two people in yellow Rand & Tuulberg jackets stand near the base of a tower crane on the construction site.

A gas cylinder and a lit gas torch on the floor of a dim room under construction.

Snacks on black serving stands and glasses on a tray on a white-clothed table.

A yellow-handled hand saw on a white-clothed table beside snacks and a bottle.

Two jugs of colourful drinks and a large dispenser with lemon slices on a refreshment table.

White hard hats on yellow-wrapped construction materials, with Rand & Tuulberg lettering on the nearest hat.

Two men in hard hats and high-visibility clothing stand among the concrete columns of a building under construction.

A man in a green hard hat stands beside temporary wooden steps as other attendees move behind him.

Attendees in safety vests and hard hats walk in single file along a narrow construction-site walkway.

Two men in hard hats stand beside a refreshment table and a gas heater in a room with concrete walls.

People in high-visibility clothing and hard hats of different colours gather in a lit room under construction.

Topping-out celebration attendees chat and drink from cups around tall tables in an unfinished room.

Three men in hard hats pose on a rooftop beside a topping-out wreath fixed to a tall wooden pole.

One man saws through a topping-out wreath pole while another holds it upright near the roof edge.

Close-up of hands, a saw and the wooden wreath pole between two people in hard hats.

Three people in hard hats hold the pole supporting a green topping-out wreath, seen from behind.

Crane chains and hooks hang in front of a topping-out wreath, with two people in high-visibility clothing on the roof.

Three men in hard hats pose on either side of a large topping-out wreath on a rooftop, with a crane jib above.

A smiling man in a hard hat holds a wooden pole and looks up through a green topping-out wreath.

People in hard hats stand around a topping-out wreath as one handles the crane chains beside it.

A person in a yellow high-visibility jacket points upward beside crane chains and a topping-out wreath.

A topping-out wreath and wooden pole suspended from crane chains above a person standing on the roof.

A green topping-out wreath hangs from a tower crane hook high above the construction site.

The jibs of two tower cranes cross against a grey sky.

USAGE

Please contact Anti Soosaar to request permission to use the photographs.