Questions for the ice palace architects

[pegkerr]

I am meeting the ice palace architects today and have come up with a list of questions in preparation.

I need to get an idea of the sequence and timing of events, from the first that you heard that St. Paul was going to have an ice palace this year, to the point your firm’s design was selected:

When did you first hear of the plans for the ice palace? Was your firm specifically invited to participate, or did you answer a general invitation? Do you know whether the call for firms to participate went out locally, statewide, or nationwide?

What did the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation give you as guidelines for your proposal? (a general "theme," budget requirements, size requirements, etc.)

Do you have any idea how many firms participated?

How were members of your team selected? i.e., did the firm management ask certain architects to work on the design, or was a meeting announced, and anyone who was interested on working on it showed up? Did the firm (or the Foundation) require that you have certain experience to participate in working on the design?

Who was on your design team? What were their roles? (i.e., structural engineer? Was he/she present from the very beginning? Is he/she in-house or from another firm? Was there one supervising architect, with others under him/her, or did you all act in equal collaboration?) Are there other people who got added to your team after the proposal was accepted, and if so, what are their roles?

How long did you work on the design? What were you trying for in your design? Did you have alternative ideas that you discarded? Why did you discard them? May I see them?

How, exactly, did you work on crafting your design idea? (drawings? What size? Computer program, etc.)

What design elements are introduced for accommodating cabling/enable the use of less ice? (i.e., any extra passages, hidden rooms, etc.)

How does the fact that the public is going to actually enter the ice palace affect your design?

Are there actually any laws that govern the structure, esp. since the public will enter it? (i.e., # of exits, size of exits, # of people who can be inside at once, etc.)

How was your bid submitted? (i.e., drawings? Model? Floorplan? Descriptive statement?) Did you have a meeting with the Foundation where you went over your proposal idea in person, or was it simply submitted as a "blind" proposal, and they picked it without knowing the firm who submitted it?

How long did you have to wait until you heard you had won the competition? How were you informed? How long did you have to wait before the public announcement was made?

Once your proposal was accepted, what happened next?

What are preliminary steps before the ice palace is built? (i.e., installing cables, concrete footings, etc. Anything else?)

What are the go/no go parameters for going ahead to build it? (i.e., temperatures must be ___ degrees for ____ days, etc.; must raise _____ amount of money, etc.)

What will be your role as the ice palace is being built? Will you be on-site? How do you interact with the Foundation as the palace is being built? (i.e., joint events? Who hosts them?) Do you have a specific liaison with them? Will you be meeting with them regularly during the whole process, from the time the proposal was accepted until the day of the ribbon-cutting ceremony?

What was the biggest surprise for you about the whole experience? What has been the most fun? The most frustrating? (Perhaps these questions are a bit premature)

Who else would you suggest I try to speak with, either with your firm, or other organizations (i.e., the construction firm, the St. Paul Foundation, anyone else?)

What questions have I missed?

Let me know if you think of any others!

Peg

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

I noticed you had questions about the preliminary steps for building, and one about the go/no-go aspect, but how about just the obvious of "How do you build one?" - the actual ice part. What are the steps involved in creating the walls, floors, steps, turrets, whatever, out of ice? Is there a general principle that can be described?

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Well, the construction company involved is a different entity, and I plan to be talking with them, too. I imagine that many of these questions were brought to their attention and/or answered by the structural engineer. I hope to be talking with him/her, too.

[nanonano.livejournal.com]

Had they had any prior experience designing an ice palace/structure? Were there any design considerations they needed to keep in mind? Are there any differences in designing for ice versus brick or concrete?

Sounds like a fascinating project. I was reminded of it this morning when I read a short blurb on an ice hotel being built outside Fairbanks, Alaska.

[qwerty88.livejournal.com]

Were there different steps for the competition?

Frex a proposal, then a short list where they had to make a model.

[jbru.livejournal.com]

What were the particular architectural challenges of working with ice as a major building component?

What steps are taken to insure the safety of the people allowed inside the finished palace?

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

"Where will you harvest the ice?"

K.

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Lake Phalen

[tigergladys.livejournal.com]

Do you have steps planned for an emergency? (ie, it warms up)

[trinker.livejournal.com]

What about the mechanical difficulties of building one? If they're not the people who know, who else would?

[sleigh.livejournal.com]

What if you get a "go" and start building, but in the middle of things, you get a warm spell? What happens then? Are there contingency plans that would allow you to somehow keep the structure cool enough not to melt?