The next month, Harrison requested that its 58 members and the 48 U.S. states participate in designing the interiors of the building's conference rooms. It was believed that if enough countries designed their own rooms, the UN would be able to reduce its own expenditures. Also in October, the American Bridge Company was hired to construct the steel superstructure of the Secretariat Building. Le Corbusier insisted that the facade of the Secretariat Building contain brises soleil, or sun-breakers, even as Harrison argued that the feature would not only be expensive but also difficult to clean during the winter. This prompted the architects to erect a mockup of the planned facade on the roof of the nearby Manhattan Building. By late 1948, the Secretariat Building was scheduled to receive its first tenants in 1950. Fuller Turner Walsh Slattery Inc., a joint venture between the George A. Fuller Company, Turner Construction, the Walsh Construction Company, and the Slattery Contracting Company, was selected in December 1948 to construct the Secretariat Building, as well as the foundations for the remaining buildings. The next month, the UN formally awarded a US$23.8 million contract for the Secretariat Building's construction to the joint venture. The Secretariat Building was to be completed no later than January 1, 1951, or the joint venture would pay a minimum penalty of US$2,500 per day to the UN. The joint venture had started constructing the piers under the building by the end of January 1949, and site excavations were completed the next month. In April 1949, workers erected the first steel beam for the Secretariat Building, and the flag of the United Nations was raised above the first beam. The cornerstone of the headquarters was originally supposed to be laid at the Secretariat Building on April 10, 1949. Lie delayed the ceremony after learning that Truman would not present to officiate the cornerstone laying. The cornerstone was held in a storage yard in Maspeth, Queens, in the meantime. The Secretariat Building's steel structure had been completed by October 1949. At a topping out ceremony on October 5, the UN flag was hoisted atop the roof of the newly completed steel frame. The facade was still not completed; the aluminum had only reached the 18th floor and the glass had reached the 9th floor. Six days later, Truman accepted an invitation to the cornerstone-laying ceremony. New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey laid the