'Love shacks' ready for chilly skaters this weekend

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Architect Graham Hogan (right) and workers get warm-up hut called APPARITION, designed by Antoine Predock, ready for skaters.

Winnipeggers wanting a warm respite from the cold can start taking shelter in the arty new "love shacks" on the river trail this weekend.

Construction is underway on the five warming sheds designed by teams of artists and architects, part of an experiment that is drawing interest from all over the world.

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photos by WAYNE.GLOWACKI@freepress.mb.ca Architect Peter Hargraves examines progress of warming hut called CARCASS.

River trail czar Paul Jordan said the huts should start making their descent onto the rink today, starting with the iceberg-like creation by Antoine Predock, the architect behind the Canadian Museum for Human Rights.

Another shed, the dangly orange orb, should be installed over the weekend.

The others will be in place by Monday or Tuesday.

Officially called The Warming Hut: An Art + Architecture Exposition on Ice, the project gave each team $9,000 to a build snazzier version of the old wooden warming sheds, often called love shacks because of the shenanigans some skaters get up to inside.

Jordan, the chief operating officer at The Forks, said it's been a trip watching the designers build each shack in The Forks plaza.

Predock, who has designed city halls, museums and ballparks, had planned to fly to Winnipeg from New Mexico to oversee construction, but was sick and couldn't make the journey. Instead, he's been stage managing the process via phone and video link, tweaking each element of his shack.

"The PCL carpenters are kind of all scratching their heads at all this," joked Jordan.

Next year, Jordan hopes to expand the project to include more huts -- maybe 10 -- and a juried international design competition. He's already had calls from architects asking to participate.

The huts will be placed between The Forks and the Manitoba Legislative Building. Here's where you can warm yourself:

"ö Apparition: Predock partnered with local landscape architecture firm Scatliff+Miller+Murray on the shelter that will look like a cross between an igloo and crumpled aluminum foil. It will have solar-fuelled lighting so the inside will have a warm, inviting glow.

"ö CARCASS: Winnipeg-based Sputnik Architecture is working with artist Jon Pylypchuk on a hut inspired by decaying rural barns. It's made of wood, aluminum and polycarbonate and shaped like a lean-to with a rounded roof.

"ö Ice Cube: Architect Kevin Loewen and photographer Merri-Lou Paterson are building a cedar-clad cube with a rooftop solar panel to power interior lights.

Because the interior will be translucent, the cube will glow at night like a lantern.

"ö Fir Hut: Architect Richard Kroeker and artist Neil Forrest are using a wild mix of pop cans and balsam fir to create a modern thatched hut inspired by aboriginal design.

"ö Sunspot: Artist Ewa Tarsia and 5468796 Architecture Inc. are creating a large orange orb that will hang from the historic rail bridge.

Its frame will hover just above the frozen river and be sprayed with orange water to form a thin shell of ice. Skaters will have to shimmy into the orb from a hole near the ground, but once inside they'll be sheltered from the wind in a glowing ball.

maryagnes.welch@freepress.mb.ca

Trail report

The Assiniboine Credit Union River Trail will be extended down the Red River to Churchill Park, likely by Monday.

The next stretch of trail is pretty much ready to go, but the area is being used over the weekend by the Voyageur Sled Dog Classic race.

The ice is in good shape between The Forks and the Hugo Street docks, but that's where it will likely end.

The rink will likely be truncated this year because of a freak warm spell earlier this month that melted the ice west of Hugo Street. It's in rough shape, making it unlikely the trail will extend further down the Assiniboine all the way to Assiniboine Park.

However, the remaining seven kilometres will still be better than Winnipeg's rink rival, Ottawa. There, warm weather and rain has left the Rideau Canal skateway a puddly mess.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition January 29, 2010 B2