Its skeleton is mostly buried, but Cuyahoga County's medical mart and convention center contains more steel than the skyscraper next door. Key Tower -- at 947 feet, the tallest building in Ohio -- weighs in at 11,800 tons of steel. The million-square-foot convention center complex is built from nearly 12,200 tons of steel. And if you laid the steel pieces end to end, they'd stretch 273 miles, all the way to Cincinnati.
 

The $465 million convention and medical trade-show center under construction in Cleveland has reached a milestone, with a traditional topping out ceremony. Hundreds of hardhat workers watched Friday as a steel beam autographed by construction crews was raised in place by a crane. More than 12,000 tons of steel have gone into the downtown project.
 

On Friday, June 22, Cuyahoga County, Merchandise Mart Properties, Inc. (MMPI), and Turner Construction Company hosted a “Topping Out” ceremony and press conference to commemorate the completion of steel erection on Cleveland Medical Mart & Convention Center. Jim Bennett, MMPI senior vice president, served as emcee with brief remarks from Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, City of Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson, and Dr. Toby Cosgrove from Cleveland Clinic.

A look at Cleveland Medical Mart and Convention Center construction: By the Numbers