Jul 1, 2008 10:37 am US/Central
Restored Dome Glistens At Cultural Center
World's Largest Tiffany Dome Underwent Restoration
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
The world's largest tiffany dome in the Chicago Cultural Center has undergone a gleaming restoration, and is letting in natural light for the first time in more than 70 years.
The tiffany glass done is as old as the Cultural Center itself. It was constructed in 1897 when the building, 78 E. Washington St., held the main branch of the Chicago Public Library. At the time, the room with the dome was the general delivery room, but today it is Preston Bradley Hall, home to the weekly Dame Myra Hess Memorial classical concerts and a variety of other musical performances.
The dome is 38 feet in diameter and covers 1,000 square feet. It has 30,000 individual pieces of glass in 243 sections, according to the Cultural Center. The center, or oculus, shows the signs of the Zodiac.
Originally, natural light streamed into the room through a translucent shell that protected the tiffany dome from the elements. But sometime in the 1930s, well before the library became the Cultural Center, an opaque copper and concrete shell replaced it.
Afterward, the dome had to be backlit with artificial lights, according to the Cultural Center.
In 2005, the Cultural Center found that 1,800 pieces of glass were cracked, and dirt had accumulated on all of the glass. The inspection also determined that there were rough chunks of clear, reflective glass, or "jewels," that had been facing into the ceiling rather than into the room.
For the restoration, the glass panels were cleaned and restored to their original luster, and turned so the jewels again faced into the room. The steel and copper shell was replaced by a new translucent glass shell, so natural light floods through the dome once again.
"It's like a jewel box. It's exceeding all the expectations that we have for the light; how the light plays on all the different cuts of the glass," said Cultural Center Deputy Commissioner Matthew Neilson. "You literally can move around the room and get a different experience through each place.
The project was finished over the weekend, a few days ahead of schedule.
The Cultural Center also has a dome in the G.A.R. Rotunda, which was repaired in two earlier campaigns, first in the mid-20th century, and later in 1977, according to the Cultural Center.
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