You are here

Alaska » South-Central Region » Matanuska-Susitna Valleys » Broad Pass » Leon Smith Igloo

Leon Smith Igloo

-A A +A
1970s-1992. Mile 188.5 George Parks Hwy.
  • Leon Smith Igloo (Alison K. Hoagland)
  • Leon Smith Igloo (Alison K. Hoagland)
  • Leon Smith Igloo (Jet Lowe)

The closest thing to a traditional snow-block igloo in Alaska, this four-story hotel is the vision of one man, Leon Smith, who designed and built it, beginning in the early 1970s. It remains unfinished, with projected completion in 1992. Smith felt that it was “appropriate that Alaska have an igloo.”

The circular-plan, wood-framed building contains 888 sheets of plywood, covered with urethane insulation on the outside, giving it its snowlike finish. The building has a four-story atrium, with forty-eight pie-shaped rooms opening onto interior balconies. On the first floor is the dining room (to seat ninety), kitchen, gift shop, and offices, as well as additional bedrooms. Though unusual in design and execution, the hotel conforms to building codes.

Such expressive buildings, known as “ducks,” are rare along the highways of Alaska. The igloo—the residential form most associated with Alaska, correctly or not—makes a vivid advertisement to the passing automobiles.

Writing Credits

Author: 
Alison K. Hoagland
×

Data

Citation

Alison K. Hoagland, "Leon Smith Igloo", [Cantwell, Alaska], SAH Archipedia, eds. Gabrielle Esperdy and Karen Kingsley, Charlottesville: UVaP, 2012—, http://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/AK-01-SC099.

Print Source

Buildings of Alaska, Alison K. Hoagland. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993, 139-139.

If SAH Archipedia has been useful to you, please consider supporting it.

SAH Archipedia tells the story of the United States through its buildings, landscapes, and cities. This freely available resource empowers the public with authoritative knowledge that deepens their understanding and appreciation of the built environment. But the Society of Architectural Historians, which created SAH Archipedia with University of Virginia Press, needs your support to maintain the high-caliber research, writing, photography, cartography, editing, design, and programming that make SAH Archipedia a trusted online resource available to all who value the history of place, heritage tourism, and learning.

,