If your flight happens to take you over downtown Columbus, you may be able to catch a glimpse of a giant Ohio flag that now adorns the roof of the city's tallest building.
Crews making planned repairs to the Rhodes State Office Tower, which houses various state government offices, added the iconic red, white and blue Ohio Burgee to the roof. The flag is embedded in a new material that replaced an aging concrete roof, which also saved the state millions of dollars in costs.
The Ohio Department of Administrative Services unveiled the flag Wednesday ahead of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America.
Although roof access is restricted and flights out of John Glenn Columbus International Airport don't typically fly over downtown, some flights or even satellites in space may be able to spot the new flag.
Department of Administrative Services Director Kathleen C. Madden said the 50-year-old concrete roof needed to be replaced. Instead of dealing with an estimated $4 million cost to transport new concrete 41 stories 鈥� or nearly 700 feet in the air 鈥� the state decided to use a cheaper material.
"A large part of that number was really the logistics involved in replacing a roof on a building of this size. And so hauling the debris down, lifting the concrete up, getting up and down that many floors for that type of work and a lot of labor and expense. And then the team came up with this synthetic polymer option that really worked out well," Madden told WOSU.
That cost was reduced to $234,000 by using polymethyl methacrylate instead of concrete. A department spokesperson said in a news release the tower was experiencing problems with water leaking through the roof.
Madden said the material has a 30-year warranty, but the state expects it to last much longer.
The flag on the roof isn't painted on, but instead the colors are embedded into the synthetic material.
The tower also added a 50-foot flag pole three years ago for a large American flag.
The timing has allowed us to celebrate both America 250 and Ohio's place in that celebration this summer. And we're so pleased to be able to celebrate the Buckeye State in this way," Madden said.