Our Lady of Victory Church (Inuvik)

Our Lady of Victory Church, often called the Igloo Church, is located on Mackenzie Road in downtown

Brother Maurice Larocque, a Catholic

Today the church is the town's best-known landmark and its most-photographed building.[8] Travel writer Robin Esrock describes it as "a church that doesn't look like any other church on Earth."^[7] The interior is decorated with paintings by Inuit artist Mona Thrasher.^[9] In the summer months the parish gives tours.^[10]

Building and grounds

Our Lady of Victory is located on a

The terrain rises gently towards the hills northeast of Inuvik from the east channel of the Mackenzie River delta 400 metres (1,300 ft) to the southeast; the church is located at roughly 20 metres (66 ft) above sea level.^[3] The church is set amid a lawn; a chainlink fence runs along the sidewalks at the southern and western sides of the lot; the latter has some evergreens and shrubs native to the area planted along the inside. On the northern side a utilidor, a narrow above-ground tunnel carrying gas and water lines, marks the rear line of the property.^[12]

A short asphalt walkway, lined with white stones, leads from Mackenzie to the church's main entrance

At the roofline is a

Open wooden steps lead up from the front walkway to the front-gabled entrance pavilion. The main entrance, on a slightly projecting middle section with a gabled top that rises slightly higher, is topped by a Gothic arched transom set with tinted glass divided by two mullions curving outwards. It is flanked near its point by two modern light fixtures. In the entablature above it is a wooden "IHS" Christogram from the middle of which rises the vertical line of a wooden cross at the gable apex.^[13]

On either side of the entrance section are recessed narrow Gothic arched windows in

At the northeast end the altar and baptismal font sit on a dais. Behind the altar is a round-arched alcove faced in shiplap below the springline; above it are the same block motif as the interior and exterior walls. Two small statues of Christ sit on pedestals fronting either side. On the back of the alcove is a crucifix with a sunburst pattern above.^[13]

The larger buttresses support the 12 main laminated wooden ceiling vaults, which widen to 3.0 metres (10 ft) at their uppermost.^[1] Between them is the same block pattern. They meet at a central rosette below the cupola, bordered by small windows that let natural light in. A ceiling fan hangs nearby.^[13] Wooden stairs from behind the altar lead up to the cupola from the sanctuary, which has an aluminum ceiling.^[17]

History

Planning for the church began as the Canadian government was building Inuvik itself in the late 1950s, as an administrative centre for the Mackenzie Delta region to replace

Larocque had worked in the Canadian North since 1930. Before becoming a missionary, he had worked as a carpenter, an experience that had led to him designing various buildings for the distant communities he worked in despite his lack of formal architectural training. For the new townsite on the delta, he sought to design a church which would reflect the local culture.^[1][7]

The environment put some constraints on a potential design.

To deal with that problem, Adam and Larocque decided on a circular building. "If it settles six inches[b] on one side," he told the paper, "it won't show—and we can always jack it up to make it level again." To fulfill Larocque's intent to design a church that reflected the local culture, it would be designed and decorated to emulate an igloo.^[1]

The circular shape would not by itself mitigate the possible effects of frost heave. To further secure the building, Larocque devised a unique structural system: The church would have a reinforced concrete basement, built on a gently bowl-shaped concrete slab which itself would have a gravel bed between it and the permafrost as insulation, to prevent heat from the building from melting the permafrost. Despite Larocque's lack of training, "he knows more about architecture than many architects," Adam said.^[1]

Larocque had sketched out his plans on two pieces of

Larocque spent the long winter in a nearby workshop, carefully supervising the assembly of the arches that were to form the domed roof. The 12 main arches were supplemented by 24 secondary ones and 72 smaller arches.^[c] His work also aroused some interest from Ottawa since the blueprints had failed to earn a permit, and more generally because he was not a registered architect. When they heard construction had begun nonetheless, they tried to have the work stopped. Bishop Paul Piché hired an engineering consultant to visit the building, who told him it was sturdy enough to last another 200 years.^[1]

In spring 1959 work on the structure continued, with many of the new town's residents volunteering their labour. The arches built over the winter were lifted into place and the exterior completed. On the inside, following the Oblate Order's reputation for making use of scrap material to minimize costs on construction projects, the shafts of used hockey sticks were used to floor a walkway in the cupola.^[23]

By winter the roof was in place, clad in reflective aluminum to make it look more like ice blocks.

Eventually, East 3 was named Inuvik and became the administrative centre the government wanted, as well as a hub for oil and gas exploration in the Canadian Arctic. In the late 1970s the Dempster Highway was completed, linking Inuvik to the rest of the North American road network, and that brought summertime tourists to Inuvik. Many took photos of the church as mementoes of their visit, and it soon became the most photographed building in town.^[7][8] "A trip north of the Arctic Circle is not complete without a photo in front of the Igloo Church," says the town's website. "[It is] Inuvik's pride and joy." The church began offering tours in the summer months.^[26]

The building encountered no major issues until 2013. In May, it was reported that its heating costs had doubled from the previous winter, to $3,400, after it changed its fuel to synthetic natural gas from the traditional kind. The parish council considered several options.^[27]

Chairman Doug Robertson told