Some days in South Bend you’ll see the Main Building on Notre Dame’s campus, generally known as the Golden Dome, to appear to shine just a hair brighter.
Well, those days are going to be happening more often soon.
If you’re on Notre Dame’s campus the next few months you’ll notice scaffolding around the dome and work being done. It’s not going anywhere, it’s just getting touched up a bit.
Or re-guilded, which is the technical term for what is being done to the dome and the 17-foot tall statue of Mary atop it.
“So, in this time we will actually prepare the existing gold, clean it very well, install a sizing primer if you will glue for the new gold to stick to that new gold will go on by over that and that’s a finished project. There’s no coatings or lacquers that go over the gold it’s the finished project,” – Tony Polotto, Senior Director of Construction – University of Notre Dame.
This is the first time the dome has been touched up since 2005, the longest time between guildings in the history of the school. According to the WSBT report, it isn’t expected to be done until October which I assume would mean the scaffolding will still be surrounding it for the Ohio State game in late-September.
I won’t pretend to be in the know of the timing but it feels like something that could have been thought out a hair better if that’s the case.
Check out pictures of the Golden Dome over the years below: