Visitors warm up to unique warming huts

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This article was published 01/02/2010 (5935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

THEY came, they saw, they shivered… but what did visitors to The Forks think of the site’s funky new warming huts?

Call it a warm welcome, though not quite a hot buzz.

“I thought they were putting heat in it,” exclaimed visitor Natalie, as she checked out four of the experimental new huts on display near The Forks’ ice-skating rink on Sunday afternoon. “I don’t think this will warm you up. I’d rather be out in the sun.”

To be fair, the huts will cut the wind for freezing skaters — in a crucial test of warmth, a reporter’s glasses fogged up inside each of them. Plus, the $9,000 structures, designed by separate teams for a project called The Warming Hut: An Art + Architecture Exposition on Ice, made a big visual impact on some.

“This is amazing,” beamed Winnipegger Jim Conly, relaxing under the evergreen canopy of the appropriately titled Fir Hut piece. “They’re all so different, so interesting.”

By Sunday afternoon, only one of the five huts was in its final place along the Assiniboine skating trail. But that piece, a hollow orange orb that hangs from the railway bridge and will glow at night, drew a crowd as designers hosed it down to create a glittering ice case.

“It’s an interesting idea… I never would have thought of it,” laughed Lorette resident Melanie Hurdal, who poked her head into the orb along with her daughter and dog. “But some heat would be good.”

Still, two out-of-town visitors were just happy to snap up an only-in-Winnipeg experience, as they gazed at their favourite of the five — the futuristic, crumpled-silver design called Apparition.

“It’s nice to see something different, something you can’t see anywhere else,” said Melville, Sask., resident Tannis Broda, who was visiting The Forks’ skating paths for the first time.

All five of the huts planned for this year should be in place along the river by Tuesday.

melissa.martin@freepress.mb.ca