St. Paul?s first ice palace in a dozen years will be built next winter ? and Building Trades unions are a key reason it will happen.

The palace will arise downtown next January as part of Winter Carnival and 2004 National Hockey League All-Star Game festivities. It will not soar to the heights of the 1992 castle ? which, at 150 feet, was the tallest ice building ever constructed. But the 2004 palace will be the first since 1941 that visitors actually can walk through.

?This is a community-friendly palace,? said David Crary, co-chair of the Ice Palace Committee. ?This is not a drive-by palace. You can get right up to it, touch it, take pictures in it. The last two palaces, you couldn?t get near.?

The palace, to be built in Cleveland Circle on the parking lot across from the Xcel Energy Center, will be the centerpiece of Winter Carnival and All-Star Game activities. The palace also coincides with the 150th anniversary of St. Paul?s incorporation as a city.

Though the palace won?t be as tall as the 1992 creation, it will be just as mammoth. The entire Cleveland Circle site will be surrounded by ice walls 12-15 feet high. Behind the walls will be the palace and what planners call a courtyard, complete with a stage, ice thrones, a waterfall, areas devoted to the Carnival themes of fire and ice ? and a refrigerated skating rink, complete with dasher boards, being supplied by the NHL.

Admission will be through purchase of the traditional Carnival buttons, organizers said at an Xcel Energy Center press conference May 1 formally announcing the palace plans.

An artist's rendering of the new ice palace. Sketch courtesy of SLL/Leo A. Daly Architects and Engineers.

A community partnership

?Our intent is to make this a destination site,? Crary said ? to get families and other visitors out of their cars to walk around the site, then visit other Carnival and hockey events downtown.

The community nature of the palace is reflected in the partnership of a dozen organizations making the palace a reality. The St. Paul Building and Construction Trades Council not only is one of those lead sponsors, Crary said ? it is the cornerstone that makes it all possible.

Dick Anfang, executive secretary of the Building Trades Council, said union members would donate about half-a-million dollars in volunteer labor to the project. ?It?s our contribution to the community and we?re happy to do it,? he said. In addition, the council is purchasing a state-of-the-art conveyor system to help pull 26,000 blocks of ice from Lake Phalen.

Tod Leiweke, chief operating officer of the Minnesota Wild?s ownership group, said, ?We proud that Trades built this arena, and that the same Trades folks will build this fabulous ice palace.?

Weather permitting, the palace is expected to be open from the first day of the Winter Carnival, Jan. 21, through NHL All-Star Weekend Feb. 7-8. Besides the Building Trades, City of St. Paul, NHL and Wild, other lead partners in the project are Kraus-Anderson Construction Cos., Collins Electrical, Cemstone Concrete, SLL/Leo A. Daly Architects and Engineers, Briggs and Morgan P.A., Grant Thornton LLP, Concept Group Inc. and SRF Consulting Group.