The
project may be ephemeral, but the designers approached the 2004 Ice Palace
in Saint Paul with the same gusto as a building meant to stand the test
of time. Volunteer designers from SLL/Leo A Daly, the Minneapolis office
of Leo A Daly, designed this shimmering 36,000-square-foot palace for
the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.
Saint Paul instituted its Winter Carnival in 1886 to showcase a city
that is alive and vibrant, even in the dead of the Minnesota winter. This
year’s theme, “A Legacy in Ice,” inspired the architect’s
team to design a striking ice palace as the carnival’s focal point.
Their design evokes myths and legends associated with the elements of
fire, water, and ice as metaphors for the annual thaw and rebirth of the
emerging spring.
It
takes an (ice) village
On grounds covering two-and-one-half city blocks, the 2004 Ice Palace
is the first to be built for the carnival in 12 years, and the first visitors
can enter since 1941. The volunteer SLL/Leo A Daly team, led by Frank
Anderson, AIA, includes four other architects, a student architect, a
high school student, seven engineers, and additional IT and support staff.
The palace and its grounds are constructed of 27,000 500-pound blocks
of ice carved from nearby Lake Phalen. The palace itself measures 240
feet long at the base, with the tallest of the five turrets towering 75
feet. Construction of the complex required 55,000 worker-hours and more
than 3,000 volunteers.
Visitors
enter the grounds through a main gate flanked by 20-foot-high ice turrets.
A dramatically arched entrance provides entry into the beautifully illuminated
ice palace itself. A fountain of ice and fire commands the courtyard,
and just beyond, nine internally lighted ice thrones circle to form the
majestic Ring of Thrones. A computer-generated light show every 90 minutes
attempts “to recreate the aurora borealis, or northern lights, inside
the Palace,” Anderson says. The palace grounds also include a refrigerated
ice rink (last included as part of the 1938 palace) and an entertainment
stage. A decorative, herringboned wall of ice surrounds the area.
But all good things . . .
The city expects more than 2 million people to visit the palace, boosted
especially by the February 8 NHL All-Star Game at the Xcel Energy Center
just across the street.
Alas, the end of the festivities will bring cranes for demolition and
a lot of steam to melt the ice, with the resulting water disappearing
through the sewer system. It’s all too fleeting, but there’s
always next year!
—Tracy Ostroff
Copyright 2004 The American Institute of Architects.
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