08/29/2026
Not exactly your average renovation. 🔭
Valkyrie Construction recently had the opportunity to take on another unique project — the renewal of the Gulliver Astronomical Observatory at Brandon University.
And believe it or not, this is actually the second observatory dome we’ve worked on.
The original dome had been sitting above Brandon since 1971. Our work started by taking the existing enclosure essentially right back to its bones.
We removed the old exterior, exposed the original circular steel structure, reframed the enclosure, sheathed the curved walls, installed new metal cladding and a new access door, and prepared everything for the new dome.
Working on a round structure is interesting enough. Doing it on the roof of a high-rise, around an existing telescope, while adapting a 50+ year-old observatory for a modern automated dome made things considerably more interesting.
There were definitely some challenges along the way — including reaching out to technical support and receiving what may genuinely be the worst photograph ever taken by a human being. 😂
Swipe through. You’ll know it when you see it.
And then there were the bugs.
Oh my God, the bugs.
Thousands of them. The pictures and videos don’t even do it justice.
Seeing the project go from an aging observatory, to a bare steel skeleton, to a completely rebuilt enclosure with a new automated dome sitting on top was pretty damn satisfying.
The project even caught the attention of the Brandon Sun, who photographed the old dome coming down and the new one going up.
Two observatory domes under our belt now. Not exactly something we expected to become part of the Valkyrie Construction résumé, but we’re certainly not complaining. 🔭
Definitely one for the books. CommercialConstruction ManitobaConstruction BrandonManitoba
