Ice Palace Site Visit
Jan. 15th, 2004 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrI frittered the morning away because I was nervous about the whole thing, but finally drove to St. Paul and parked downtown. Then my nerve failed me at this strategic moment, and I bolted into a Starbucks and bought a decaf skim latte and chocolate biscotti to fortify myself and called ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kijjohnson on my cell phone and begged her to tell me I wasn't about to make a fool of myself. She said I wouldn't, and agreed that this sort of thing was scary, but assured me I'd do fine. With Kij's reassurances ringing in my ears and chocolate and coffee under my belt, I sallied forth for the Landmark Center, took the elevator up to the fourth floor, and marched into the headquarters of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation and with every appearance of confidence asked to speak to Angela Yender, the Communications Director. My visit seemed to take them a little bit by surprise, despite the explanatory messages I had left earlier this week, but Angela made arrangements to meet me down at the Ice Palace site in an hour.
Angela was as nice as could be, and she gave me a couple hours of her time. I had brought a camera but alas, the battery died, and she promised she would e-mail me construction pictures. She introduced me to a bunch of the volunteer union workers. I already had a pretty good idea of what the workers were doing, because of my interview with Frank Anderson and Lowell Anderson, the architects. I asked a good number of questions about the various trucks and equipment the workers were using. I realized ruefully that one of my young nephews would have been very handy to have along on this site visit. They would have known exactly what each of those trucks were, and how they were supposed to be used. Bob cats, skid steers, man basket lifts, JLGs, Lulls, fitted with booms and forklifts, etc., etc. "You can talk with the contruction manager, Jake," Angela told me, "and he can give you specifications on all this stuff, but I'd wait until at least March."
The blocks for the ice palace measure 12" x 22" x 44" and they weigh 500 lbs each. They are stacked 6 to a wooden pallet, and moved in loads of 80 - 100 blocks on each flatbed truck. The workers wield propane weed burners, to melt the tops and bottoms of the ice blocks, which mortars the blocks together. "Also very handy for warming up the chainsaws," one of the workers told me. "They tend to freeze up a lot."
Chainsaws? I looked over to one side and, sure enough, saw one of the workers sawing through a block, cutting it to fit a corner measurement.
"Only ya have to be careful doing that, since the chainsaws have gas tanks."
The construction is going on 24 hours a day now, running in three shifts around the clock. Besides building up the ice walls and towers, they are also installing the electrical equipment for the light shows. "The guy who designed the light show is very protective about it," Angela told me. "They're only doing very short tests, because he doesn't want to spoil the surprise for people when they run the light show the first day the palace opens. The light show will be 8 minutes long, and run every half hour." Soon they will start building the ice thrones in the front and the special fountain which will shoot out both water and flame. They have installed the equipment for the ice rink and started flooding it. Once the palace is finished, it will be open to the public 10 a.m. to midnight, for approximately three weeks.
I donned a hard hat and flourescent-orange vest with "Ice Palace" written across the back (very glamourous) and stayed for about two hours, watching and taking notes. In a flash of genius this morning, I had stuffed a chemical warmer into my jacket pocket, and that turned out to be a godsend. This is a little packet which, when you unwrap it from its plastic cover and squeeze it, it sets off a chemical reaction which makes it put off heat for several hours. I had to have my glove off to take notes, but with the chemical warmer giving off heat tucked into my pocket, I could stick my hand in there and warm up my pen, and so I was quite comfortable. I only started to get cold after about two hours.
Tomorrow night I'll be going back and meeting Angela again, and she'll escort me out to Lake Phalen so that I can watch the ice cutting close up.
kijjohnson on my cell phone and begged her to tell me I wasn't about to make a fool of myself. She said I wouldn't, and agreed that this sort of thing was scary, but assured me I'd do fine. With Kij's reassurances ringing in my ears and chocolate and coffee under my belt, I sallied forth for the Landmark Center, took the elevator up to the fourth floor, and marched into the headquarters of the St. Paul Festival and Heritage Foundation and with every appearance of confidence asked to speak to Angela Yender, the Communications Director. My visit seemed to take them a little bit by surprise, despite the explanatory messages I had left earlier this week, but Angela made arrangements to meet me down at the Ice Palace site in an hour.Angela was as nice as could be, and she gave me a couple hours of her time. I had brought a camera but alas, the battery died, and she promised she would e-mail me construction pictures. She introduced me to a bunch of the volunteer union workers. I already had a pretty good idea of what the workers were doing, because of my interview with Frank Anderson and Lowell Anderson, the architects. I asked a good number of questions about the various trucks and equipment the workers were using. I realized ruefully that one of my young nephews would have been very handy to have along on this site visit. They would have known exactly what each of those trucks were, and how they were supposed to be used. Bob cats, skid steers, man basket lifts, JLGs, Lulls, fitted with booms and forklifts, etc., etc. "You can talk with the contruction manager, Jake," Angela told me, "and he can give you specifications on all this stuff, but I'd wait until at least March."
The blocks for the ice palace measure 12" x 22" x 44" and they weigh 500 lbs each. They are stacked 6 to a wooden pallet, and moved in loads of 80 - 100 blocks on each flatbed truck. The workers wield propane weed burners, to melt the tops and bottoms of the ice blocks, which mortars the blocks together. "Also very handy for warming up the chainsaws," one of the workers told me. "They tend to freeze up a lot."
Chainsaws? I looked over to one side and, sure enough, saw one of the workers sawing through a block, cutting it to fit a corner measurement.
"Only ya have to be careful doing that, since the chainsaws have gas tanks."
The construction is going on 24 hours a day now, running in three shifts around the clock. Besides building up the ice walls and towers, they are also installing the electrical equipment for the light shows. "The guy who designed the light show is very protective about it," Angela told me. "They're only doing very short tests, because he doesn't want to spoil the surprise for people when they run the light show the first day the palace opens. The light show will be 8 minutes long, and run every half hour." Soon they will start building the ice thrones in the front and the special fountain which will shoot out both water and flame. They have installed the equipment for the ice rink and started flooding it. Once the palace is finished, it will be open to the public 10 a.m. to midnight, for approximately three weeks.
I donned a hard hat and flourescent-orange vest with "Ice Palace" written across the back (very glamourous) and stayed for about two hours, watching and taking notes. In a flash of genius this morning, I had stuffed a chemical warmer into my jacket pocket, and that turned out to be a godsend. This is a little packet which, when you unwrap it from its plastic cover and squeeze it, it sets off a chemical reaction which makes it put off heat for several hours. I had to have my glove off to take notes, but with the chemical warmer giving off heat tucked into my pocket, I could stick my hand in there and warm up my pen, and so I was quite comfortable. I only started to get cold after about two hours.
Tomorrow night I'll be going back and meeting Angela again, and she'll escort me out to Lake Phalen so that I can watch the ice cutting close up.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-15 08:08 pm (UTC)How do they get the ice blocks out of the river/lake/whateverthesourceis?
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-15 08:14 pm (UTC)They cut the ice out of the lake and lever it onto a conveyer belt gizmo which hoists each block out of the water and then it slides down the ramp to where the waiting workers slice of the top and load it onto the pallets. I'll see that close up tomorrow.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 05:28 am (UTC)(site requires registration -- and then you get a crappy newsletter)
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-15 08:33 pm (UTC)Hubby and I both love construction shows, Modern Marvels, Worlds ______est shows, the whole lot. Never seen anything about the ice palace, though, and definitely looking forward to reading your reports.
Thanks for sharing the process with us!
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-15 10:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-15 11:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 04:15 am (UTC)36 Hours in St. Paul
Date: 2004-01-16 04:19 am (UTC)Sounds like you done well!
Re: 36 Hours in St. Paul
Date: 2004-01-16 04:21 am (UTC)Re: 36 Hours in St. Paul
Date: 2004-01-16 04:51 am (UTC)Re: 36 Hours in St. Paul
Date: 2004-01-16 04:47 am (UTC)Ice Hotel
Date: 2004-01-16 04:20 am (UTC)Here's the website of you're curious:
Here's the website of you're curious: <A HREF:"http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/index.en.php" target="ice">http://www.icehotel-canada.com/en/index.en.php</A>
Re: Ice Hotel
Date: 2004-01-16 04:50 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 06:18 am (UTC)Caroline
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 06:23 am (UTC)I repeat, THIS IS SO COOL.
Way to go. You have Material now.
[I seem to be the Capitalization Queen today. Sorry about that!]
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-16 09:07 am (UTC)B
(no subject)
Date: 2004-01-19 03:05 pm (UTC)...Hania