_{Students of the Masters of Tall Buildings and Vertical Urbanism (MTBVU) program, and Dr. Antony Wood, Director of MTBVU Program,
with the finished Ice Tower Igloo.}

With temperatures plunging as low as -5°F in February 2025, the Masters of Tall Buildings and Vertical Urbanism (MTBVU) students, led by Dr. Antony Wood, spent several days building a vertical tower out of ice. As outlined in more detail below, this process started with creating blocks using balloons as molds – filled with water and food coloring and left outside to freeze – then using snow with water to form a mortar mush, freezing the blocks together, row-by-row, in place. The finished 12-foot high tower was quite spectacular, a great construction learning experience for the students, and was featured in every major TV news channel in Chicago!

Water Balloon Blocks (left): Different food colors were poured in the balloons and were filled with water until they reach the size of approximately 12 inches. Then the balloons were arranged on metal corrugated sheets for freezing.
Freezing the blocks (right): The balloons were left for almost four days after which, the balloons with skins discarded, turned into colorful ice blocks, ready to be used as building blocks.

Mortar Making (left): Snow smush was used as a mortar for binding the ice blocks. Snow was collected from the surrounding vicinity and was mixed with water to make ice smush. This was filled between ice blocks to make a solid bond quickly freezing.
Laying The Foundation (right): The process started with putting a central guide nail to determine a proper circumference of the base. Then, ice blocks were arranged and locked with snow smush as mortar whilst leaving an opening as an entrance for the igloo.

Blocks Arrangement (left): Arranging the blocks upto the first six feet was a relatively easy task as it was accessible by the students. Scaffolds and harnesses were needed to go higher with one student arranging and fixing the blocks from inside the tower igloo.
Finished Product (right): The finished product was awesome for the students who had built it, the IIT community, and the general public. It looked stunning, especially against the orthogonal-ness of Crown Hall, with beautiful colors highlighted by sunlight hitting the surface.

View From The Inside (left): Maintaining the shape of the Tower Igloo as we went up became a challenging task lifiting heavy ice blocks into place. The view from the inside, looking up to sky, was spectacular.
Illuminating At Night (right): The most beautiful aspect of decorating the tower was illuminating it from within at night. The lights coming out of the colored ice blocks created a mesmerizing vista for the passers by and students coming out of the Crown Hall.

In the News!
This structure became an attraction not only for the passers by or the students at Illinois Tech but was also covered by ABC news, Fox 32 Chicago, CBS Chicago, NBC news Chicago with Dr. Antony Wood and students’ interviews.

Learn more about IIT's MTBVU program here.