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The Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart is already an easy landmark. 

Its exterior appears to be nearly complete.

Thousands of feet of scaffolding inside lead to the very top of the structure.

“When this is hoisted up, there will be light fixtures mounted to it,” Erick Eshelman said.

A window will be placed in the dome Tuesday.  There is no question the work is on a vast scale.

One year from Monday, there will be a three-hour ceremony at the site.  Bishops, cardinals and representatives from the Vatican will be in attendance.

But there’s something at the site that’s exactly the opposite of the grandeur.

“I’m not interested in people just being caught up by the magnitude of the place,” Bishop Vincent Rizotto of the Archdiocese of Galveston/Houston said.

Stories of those working at the site are built into the structure, including that of an artist from a small town in Sicily where generations of craftsman – and the Bishop’s family – came from.

“In this small little town in Sicily, this man is reaching out to this fourth larges city in the United States and sharing his spirituality and his artistic ability with the people of Houston,” Rizotto said.

While it is the sculptures and stained glass that may awe visitors, the walls themselves are what awe the engineer.

“Having someone build the wall out of concrete 70 feet in the air and keeping it plum and straight is … it’s a sight to see, and we put a lot of planning into that, and that was the most rewarding part so far in this project,” Eshelman said.

And on top of the ten stories of the cathedral, builders are adding their own stories every day.