When hail stones the size of cricket balls pelted Canberra in January, they dented the roof of the Shine Dome so severely it has had to be resurfaced.

The copper roof of the iconic spaceship-like building was pitted with deep bumps.

Its new $2 million copper roof will be smooth and a lot brighter.

The old one was also made of copper, but copper turns a dull green over the years - so dull green became the familiar tinge of the old version.

The new one will be bright and shiny and, well, copper in colour. It will radiate in glory in the summer sky of Canberra, catching the sun.

"The fresh covering of copper will look brilliant," said Anna-Maria Arabia, chief executive of the Australian Academy of Science which owns the building.

The Dome was completed in 1959, and was innovative for its time. Apart from anything, it was concrete and modern. The structure supports itself with no internal pillars. It won a string of design competitions.

In 2000, it was named after Professor John Shine, who donated $1 million for its renovation.

In a way, the true innovation will be under the surface.

The new roof is going on top of the old roof, and the cavity will act as insulation to make the Dome more energy-efficient.

"When the Shine Dome was first built, its design was described as unconventional and futuristic," Ms Arabia said.

You will only have about another year to see it in its full shiny coppery glory - though if it rains heavily (which it might), the dome may turn green even faster.

The original copper was intended to oxidise to a dark green-brown over 10 years, but the clean air of Canberra meant that it took much longer. The new roof will also turn green, but probably not in the next year.

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The day of the hail was a real drama at the Dome.

The stones broke the skylights and water flooded in over the library, which houses important scientific documents.

As the glass shattered, staff realised that cardboard boxes full of original and invaluable papers written by Australian scientists who had won global eminence were about to be turned to pulp.

Among them were original notes written by Frank Fenner, whose work led to the eradication of smallpox, and of Gordon Leslie Ada, who did much to help us understand influenza.

With the papers at risk, staff rushed to the Dome in their high heels, socks and stockings, and formed a human chain to ferry the boxes from the library to a safe, dry place - just in the nick of time.

"It was an absolutely frightening situation," Anna-Maria Arabia said.

Happily, there were champagne buckets in the library.

"We also immediately had buckets - whatever we could grab, we grabbed to capture the water so it would not go on top of the archival boxes and then enter them and affect the contents," she said.