On a frozen stretch of the North Quad, what began as a fun winter construction experiment grew into something far more meaningful: a student-built ice chapel that drew thousands into prayer, community, and shared wonder. For Wesley Buonerba ’27, School of Architecture at the University of Notre Dame, the project became a powerful lesson in how architecture shapes human experience far beyond the classroom.
The idea emerged after Buonerba and Martin Soros ’26, a civil engineering major, watched fellow Coyle Community resident Liam Devine ’28, build an igloo on the quad several weeks earlier. All three students live in Zahm Hall. Inspired by the igloo, Buonerba and Soros decided to take on a snow and ice project of their own and their first instinct was immediate.
“Let’s build a chapel,” Buonerba recalls. And the St. Olaf Ice Chapel was conceived.
The decision was personal as well as communal. Buonerba, raised Catholic, says sacred architecture has long been central to why he chose to study at Notre Dame.
“This University’s Catholic identity is such a core part of campus life,” he said. “At first it was just something fun to try, but as we kept building, we realized it could be a great way of evangelization and showcase our Catholic identity."
Buonerba’s architectural influences soon began to shape the chapel’s design. His time studying in Rome, at the School of Architecture’s campus, deepened his love for sacred architecture, while French Gothic precedents, especially Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, served as a central inspiration for this project.
“In my mind, we were making a mini Sainte-Chapelle or that’s the idea,” he said with a laugh.
Their plan was simple: armed with a measuring tape and two sheets of paper bearing rough sketches, they mapped out a series of arches and how the vaults would connect, marked the layout on the ground, and began setting the blocks in place.
“We just went for it with lessons learned from taking classes like Building Technology and Structures,” he said.
Though constructed from snow and ice, Buonerba, Soros, and a core group of friends, approached the design like a masonry building with arches where they used a car hood they found in the basement of their dorm as formwork to hold the voussoirs as they were placing the keystone and making it sit using a slashy mortar made from snow and water.
“It was a lot of trial and error,” Buonerba explains. “We were just making blocks and putting them together like you would a stone building using Gothic architecture.”
Working with ice and snow led him to reflect on materials and construction. “If we were able to build this in six days, why can’t we build structures today that are both beautiful and structurally sound? Why can’t we build to last?” he said.
Even before the Mass was celebrated, the chapel was already changing campus life. As they worked on the North Quad, often in bitter, painful cold in subzero temperatures, they began noticing how much joy the project brought to people passing by. Located along a busy route to North Quad and the North Dining Hall, the site saw constant foot traffic between classes. Students frequently stopped to smile, take photos, and explore the structure, and seeing that sense of curiosity and delight made the effort feel worthwhile, Buonerba said.
The project also reinforced an important lesson about collaboration. Working alongside Soros and volunteers from different majors showed Buonerba how essential hands-on teamwork and collaboration is to architecture.
“You can’t just step back and let others do the work,” he said. “Everyone had a role, making blocks, building buttresses, setting the spire and collecting the icicles for all that. I wasn’t the main guy; I was just one of them guiding things along.”
When thousands braved the cold to attend the Mass on February 2, 2026, Buonerba said it deepened his appreciation for Notre Dame’s community and how much could be accomplished on short notice to celebrate Candlemas, the Feast of the Presentation. A friend quickly assembled a choir the day before, students helped shovel snow across North Quad so worshippers would not be standing in ankle deep snow, and even a borrowed karaoke speaker from a nearby dorm helped make the service possible.
“An estimated crowd of 1,800 to 2,000 people gathered for Mass at St. Olaf Ice Chapel,” said Rev. Richard Bullene, C.S.C., assistant dean, academic director of the Rome Studies Program, and associate teaching professor. “Although 1,600 Communion hosts had been prepared, ministers began breaking some in half toward the end of the service to accommodate the unexpectedly large turnout.”
He added that the chapel and Mass quickly became a major topic of conversation at Corby Hall, which is the center of community life, common prayer, and shared meals for the Priests and Brothers of Holy Cross community on campus.
“Saint Olaf Chapel and the Mass have been the top table topic in Corby Hall these last few days. The construction, the creativity of the structure, and the spontaneous response to a campus Mass all bring up that familiar phrase: ‘Only at Notre Dame…’ ” he said.
The experience has strengthened Buonerba’s desire to pursue architecture that directly serves communities. This summer, he will travel to Mombasa, Kenya, through Notre Dame’s Center for Social Concerns, helping construct housing and supporting vocational training efforts for the local communities.
“I prefer being hands-on,” he said. “Getting to build and see the impact right away.”
Long after the chapel melts, the lessons remain, about beauty, collaboration, faith, and architecture’s power to shape moments of shared meaning.
For Buonerba, the project proved something fundamental and he gave all the glory to God.
“Architecture,” he said, “is art on a large scale. And it can really inspire people.”