Ice Crystals and Floes: Winnipeg Convention Centre “City Room” Nearing Completion

09.25.15

Just in time for the Canadian Football League’s 2015 Grey Cup Festival, the Winnipeg Convention Centre’s iconic City Room is on schedule to complete construction this November. Part of a 286,000-sf facility expansion designed by LMN Architects in association LM/Number 10 Architects, the City Room features a 30,000-sf ceiling with a suspended steel armature inspired by ice crystal and floe patterns. Using parametric modeling, LMN Tech Studio and the design team developed a single ‘crystal’ that could be combined in numerous patterns to create the effect of an organic whole. Eventscape, a Toronto-based fabricator, worked closely with LMN Tech Studio to detail, fabricate, and install 325 of the steel crystals, as well as 84 lighting elements custom-designed for the ceiling. The room spans York Avenue, with an urban-scaled glass wall integrating the beauty and energy of the event space with the life of the city.