No need to put the Statue of Liberty on a pedestal—it has been on one for 125 years. But there is a need to upgrade both the pedestal and the statue itself so that they are compliant with current life-safety codes, says the owner, the U.S. Dept. of the Interior's National Park Service. And when it comes to the Statue of Liberty, even something as mundane sounding as a life-safety upgrade is anything but ordinary.
During the $27.3-million renovation, the mandate from the park service is to protect the historic fabric of the monument, which is located on Liberty Island in New York Harbor. The task will include the statue's copper skin, designed by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi; the structure itself, designed by Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, and the stone pedestal, designed by Richard Morris Hunt.