About an hour ago, that ribboncutting marked the official grand opening of the High Point Neighborhood Center, the $13 million “heart of High Point” community facility that we’ve been chronicling since even before its August 2008 groundbreaking (WSB coverage here, and here’s the tour we took during construction). Hundreds of people at the celebration this afternoon – which started with an hour of tours before speeches and the ribboncutting ceremony – here’s just one small cross-section of the crowd:

Speakers included executive director Mark Okazaki of Neighborhood House, the organization that led the project, which is already famous for its solar array and LEED Gold certification – he listed some of its other environmental attributes too:

We’ve got other scenes and speeches to add later. If you haven’t been to HP Neighborhood Center yet, you can check it out during Sustainable West Seattle‘s “Money-Free Shopping Spree” pre-holiday gathering, which’ll be happening there 6:30 pm Monday – we also published a detailed preview story last Monday, with photos of some of its amazing art. ADDED SUNDAY: More photos – click ahead!

State Sen. Claudia Kauffman, a “child of High Point” who has made history as Washington’s first female Native American state senator, was at the ceremony with her daughter. Another speaker, Martha Kongsgaard, who chaired the HPNC capital campaign:

The 34th District’s three state legislators were on hand – Rep. Eileen Cody, Sen. Joe McDermott, Rep. Sharon Nelson:

And the “other McDermott” – Congressman Jim – stood with Governor Gregoire’s rep Laura Lockard, though we took this photo mostly for the adorable kids standing in front of them:

The new Neighborhood Center has a website, of course – see it here.