Icy Cool COLORado 2/21/2008Chena Springs, AK- There is a place where getting cold feet on your big day and throwing a chilly reception afterwards is perfectly fine. It’s the Aurora Ice Museum, one of the most impressive hand-carved ice structures anywhere, at almost 6,000 square feet, and standing an hour away from the bustle of Fairbanks. Open year-round, it showcases the work of award-winning husband and wife team, Steve and Heather Brice, including a two-story observation tower, a spiral staircase, chandeliers, and life-size chess set and jousters on horseback, among other creations carved from over 1,000 tons of ice. Calling it a museum, however, belies the resort perks it also offers, with a full ice bar complete with Appletinis served in ice-carved glasses, four bedrooms for rent, each with a separate theme, ice furniture and, yes, even an ice altar. The museum remains at a brisk 20 degrees Fahrenheit year-round thanks to an absorption chiller that keeps it cold enough to withstand the rising temperatures during summer months. Lighting the interior to accentuate the details in the carvings without generating heat presented a serious challenge. Steve and Heather Brice selected CHAUVET fixtures out of familiarity with the line. They had participated in March in the Ice Alaska Art Championships where the COLORado™ 1 and COLORado™ 3 wash lights had illuminated ice sculptures of artists from around the world, including their own. When they learned that Ice Alaska’s organizers had put the very same fixtures up for sale, the Brices purchased them without hesitation. The units’ IP66 rating, rugged casing and use of LEDs make them perfect for an application that is sensitive to heat and requires a strong resilience to outdoor elements, with the fixtures being submersed in water, frozen into blocks of ice and then suspended and expected to perform in persistent 200 F temperatures.
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