No, that’s not the monolith from “2001: A Space Odyssey” popping up out of the ground in west Lawrence.

It’s just a 135,000-pound slab of custom-cast concrete, or the equivalent of the foundation for two duplex units sliced lengthwise.

Then stood on end.

“You breathe easy once it’s on the ground and in place,” said Kevin Markley, project manager and principal for Mar Lan Construction, as crews used a 300-ton crane to hoist panels into place Wednesday at Bella Sera, 4700 Bob Billings Parkway. “What’s going to be neat is when they’re all in place. We’re changing the skyscape out here. In a matter of days, we’ll have the appearance of what this project will look like.”

The project is Bella Sera, a three-building, more than $50 million luxury condominium project going up north of the intersection of Bob Billings Parkway and the southern stretch of Inverness Drive.

The concrete slabs – four of them – that were stood on end Wednesday will box in the east elevator for the project’s first building, known as Barcelona.

When completed by the end of next year, Barcelona will feature an underground parking garage with 60 spaces, plus five floors above – featuring amenities for residents’ use and 37 high-end condos offering views ranging from the McGrew Nature Preserve below to the Wakarusa River Valley off in the distance.

A stair tower core takes shape with the help of a 300-ton capacity track crane at the Bella Sera condominium construction site. The 60-foot tower is made up of four concrete panels, each cast on site, that will form one of the two stairwells at the development along the north side of Bob Billings Parkway and north of Brandon Woods Retirement Community.

Prices for each unit range from about $350,000 to more than $800,000. The largest penthouses already are sold.

For now, crews from Lawrence-based Mar Lan (the project’s general contractor) and Kansas City, Kan.-based Lithko (subcontractor for the concrete panels) are standing concrete on end.

Earlier this month they poured the panels on site, letting them cure inside what eventually will be the building’s garage.

The crane fired up its diesel motors at 7:05 a.m. Wednesday, and by day’s end it had four panels in place for the staircase. Each panel is 8 inches thick and 60 feet tall.

“And these are the short ones,” Markley said.

Panels for the elevator core are 10 inches thick, eight feet wide and 83 feet tall. They are set to be installed today just west of the staircase box.

“We’ll sort of have a twin-tower effect going on here,” he said.

The concrete work will be repeated in the coming days at what will be the west end of the Barcelona building, what is planned to be the first of three condo buildings – Monaco and Genoa are the others.