Mark's office
› Home page
› Writing
› Editing
› Web work
› Resume
› E-mail

Stan's office
› Home page
› Writing
› Photos
› Resume
› E-mail

Living room
› Snapshots
› Movies
› Music
› Games
› Other stuff

Bedroom
› ...I don't think so

Moving up and out of the dome

By Mark Sabbatini
Sun staff

If all goes as planned, South Pole dwellers will get to indulge in unlimited ice cream and control their own thermostats during those minus 100 degree days this winter.

Many will also say goodbye to quirky, if sometimes nostalgic, living arrangements such as co-ed community bathrooms, battered furniture and industrial-size doors rattling the halls every time someone enters or exits. Instead they’ll sleep in dorms with computer data ports and eat in a spacious dining room with windows overlooking the plateau.

Prep Cook Stefanie Kerr slices vegetables while Suzanne Same, the station’s winter chef, background, prepares tempeh in the South Pole station’s current kitchen, scheduled to close in mid-February. Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

The inside of the new dining facility gets finishing touches at the South Pole. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Jake Spencer trims the wall covering in the new dishroom. Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

South Pole Area Director B.K. Grant gets food from the serving line in the old kitchen. Phot by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

The new South Pole elevated station, scheduled for completion in 2007. (See full-size image>>>)

The view from the windows are generally the most popular feature of the new dining hall at the South Pole. Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Jake Spencer, front, Ian Guptill, back and Doug Forsythe, at wall, work on the interior of the new building. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Diners crowd into the old dining hall for lunch at the South Pole. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Cereal jars line makeshift shelves in the old dining hall at the South Pole station. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

A hallway leading to the dorms and dining hall at the new South Pole station. Photo by Melanie Conner/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Eric Daigh and Paul Smulow work on the sauna at the new South Pole station. Photo by Kristan Hutchison/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

Chris Martin inspects one of the new dorm rooms at the South Pole station. Photo by Mark Sabbatini/The Antarctic Sun (See full-size image>>>)

This season’s winter staff is scheduled to be the first to inhabit the Pole’s new elevated station, as the dining hall and one set of dorms is considered complete enough for use. There are enough dorms for 50 people, so some of the station’s estimated 60 winter workers will continue living in the landmark dome that the new station is replacing.

“We’re in a transition period where we have two cities,” said Jerry Marty, the station’s National Science Foundation representative.

The old and new stations are linked by a tower that resembles a grain elevator, so many workers and researchers may not need to set foot outside during their normal workday. Furthermore, the interior of the new station is heated, unlike the dome where the space between the buildings it covers is at or near the same temperature as outdoors.

A group of inspectors from various agencies is at the Pole determining if the new station meets safety requirements for occupation. Marty said some incomplete work will be addressed during the winter and next season, but all safety requirements will be completed before the move-in occurs.

“The A1 (winter-over housing area) and A2 (dining and mechanical area) will be occupied upon completion, testing and assurance that all fire/life/safety systems are functional, as well as basic infrastructure utility systems being functional,” Marty wrote in an e-mail from the Pole on Friday. “We are targeting Feb. 10 as the date to have these items completed. Actual move-in would occur during the weeks of Feb. 10 and Feb. 17, with the majority occurring during the week of Feb. 17. Based on this and making sure the kitchen equipment has been ‘tested and burned in for usage,’ the first meal will probably be served around Feb. 14.”

The dome has outlived its design life, necessitating the $153 million elevated station scheduled for completion in 2007. Construction workers, who make up 28 of the Pole’s winter occupants, will spend the season working on the inside of section A3, which houses the medical and computer labs, with the goal of occupying it next year.

Dining room with a view

The first major part of the transition to the new station will be the closing of the dome’s dining hall, a windowless facility designed for 60 people that now feeds more than 200 during the summer. Different people are excited about different things in the new dining hall – the walk-in freezer, the always-available ice cream machine, something called a tilting skillet – but one feature seems to stand above all others.

“The views are unbelievable,” said “Cookie” Jon Emanuel, head of food service at the South Pole station. “The natural light floods over into the cooking area. It’s going to be nice to look out the window every once in a while.”

Just outside the windows are the international flags that surround the ceremonial South Pole and behind them is the skiway where airplanes arrive and depart. Beyond that view – which captures some of the most colorful moments of visitors and private expeditions – is the polar plateau that can be seen for miles on a clear day.

Those preparing and eating some of their final meals in the old dining hall said there are some things they will miss, but generally the new facility is a significant upgrade.

“ This place is really nice and cozy, but…it just felt really spacious over there,” said Stefanie Kerr, a first-year prep cook who has a storage unit in Whitefish, Mont.

The differences go beyond cosmetic. The cooks can recite a long list of equipment and design improvements they say will make their job easier. One of the first things Emanuel mentioned was that tilting skillet – a standard in the food industry if not necessarily the average household kitchen.

“We made pot roast a few weeks ago where we had to use three large roasting pans and three ovens,” he said. “You can do pot roast for 150 in one of those (tilting skillets).”

Among the other devices favored by cooks feeding large crowds is an Alto-Shaam oven that can cook prime rib at one temperature and keep it warm at another, and the steam-jacketed kettle that delivers gentle heat up the sides.

“You can’t burn things in it,” Emanuel said.

Diners in the larger serving area will also be able to collect food from a BBQ grill before heading to tables that, unlike the current kitchen, are far enough away they don’t contribute to the logjam during busy periods. Emanuel said the new dining room is designed for 150 people, so “it’ll still be cramped, but not nearly as terribly” during the busiest periods.

The kitchen is also bigger and more efficiently designed, making it easier for cooks to move around and prepare their large pans and trays of food. Access to many of their ingredients will also be simpler due to a walk-in refrigerator and freezer. Getting perishables at the old kitchen means going outside to another building within the dome.

“You don’t have to put on your bunny boots,” said Suzanne Same, a first-year winter chef from Boulder, Colo., who has more than 30 years of professional cooking experience.

Not everybody wants to see the old kitchen go dark. Drew Logan, a Seattle resident, said the new dining hall is too sterile and prefers to keep his old room under the dome because it’s located right above the office where he works. There’s also the attachment that comes after years in the old digs.

“I helped build these lights,” he said, pointing to the dining room ceiling. “My wife helped build the thing that holds the cereal.”

Michael Holstine, a first-year science technician, said he likes the new dining hall, but will miss the old one because “it’s a lot closer to my office.” Also, he said he’ll miss the exposure to outside temperatures while making the walk between buildings.

“The cold hits you like a breath of fresh air,” he said.

Some traditions will make its way over to the new station. Emanuel said one priority is finding a location for the “whiner bell,” which cooks ring when somebody in line gets nitpicky about something.

“The Polies are trained to boo and hiss – the entire dining room,” he said. “It’s a beautiful thing.”

A step up in living

Current housing ranges from portable canvas buildings with curtain walls to rooms resembling well-worn college dorms. Some old-time Polies find the housing acceptable, but nobody mistakes their rooms as luxurious. Also, the housing does not confirm to safety codes and uses large amounts of fuel for heat.

“The classic quote is they do not meet the minimum federal requirements for a prison cell,” said Chris Martin, a scientist who is spending this winter at the Pole as part of the AS/TRO project.

Exaggeration or not, it’s a characterization unlikely to survive in the new rooms. Every room comes with a set of modular furniture, including a bunk with a set of drawers underneath, a desk and a portable closet. The decorative atmosphere isn’t the only big change: there’s also improved ventilation and every room has its own thermostat.

About 10 of the rooms have removable walls so couples can share quarters. Safety features also get an upgrade, including fire walls, fire detection and fire safety equipment.

“You’re dealing with a 30-year difference in design,” said Bill Henriksen, the station’s winter manager.

Men and women will have their own communal bathrooms, with one of each on both floors. Storage cubes are provided for personal items, but there is only one shower per bathroom – the long-standing policy of two 2-minute showers per person per week is not changing.

Workers who have gotten a sneak preview of the rooms generally said they are inclined to ask for a room on the lower of two levels available. The upper level is where the new dining hall is, likely meaning more noise and crowding in the bathrooms as the station’s population flocks to meals.

Logan, happy in his old room, said there are still enough improvements at the new facility to be attractive.

“I would be tempted if I could get a windowed room over the winter,” Logan said.

Henriksen said rooms with windows will be assigned by seniority. Rooms on the inner side of the building lack windows, but so do the rooms in virtually all of the current Pole housing buildings.

The room improvements and extras, such as hook-ups for the Internet and televisions, may appeal to Pole residents, but they may also have an unintended cultural effect. Tim Dye, an anthropologist studying social behavior in Antarctica this season, said taking people away from centralized computer labs and other facilities may cut down on the social interaction at what is frequently characterized as a close-knit community.

“I see it happening,” Henriksen said. “I see it happening at McMurdo.”

But designers of the new station took pains to make sure some vital parts of South Pole culture are preserved. An adjustment was made to the sauna, for example, to raise the automatic shutdown temperature above 200 degrees so that the popular – if unofficial – tradition of the 300 Club (exposure to the sauna, followed by exposure to –100F temperatures outside) could be preserved.

“That’ll be up and running,” Henriksen promised.

Not quite complete

Assuming a team of architects, engineers, NSF officials and others give the section of the new station a temporary certificate of occupancy, there still is some work remaining before the wing is complete. But station officials are talking about the move this month as if it’s a done deal.

“Right offhand I don’t see any big red-ticket items that are going to stop it,” Henriksen said.

There will also be some non-essential portions of the station wing not fully completed, Marty said.

“In more cases than not it’s something that didn’t get here,” Marty said, noting a bathroom, for example, might have six clothing hooks instead of eight.

A list of questions regarding living arrangements is also being addressed. It appears the bunks may be difficult to join together for couples. A smoking lounge has not yet been built - but will in the future - a problem since occupants can’t realistically go outside and light up when it’s –100F. And there are issues such as how to keep the station as clean as possible.

“People in the garage shop will come up to eat,” Marty said. “What do we do with their greasy boots?”

Some of the problems are proving easy to solve, such as installing bins in the hallway for people to put their boots. But feedback is expected to continue as people move into and get used to their new home.

“Once the team is in for the winter the list will continue to grow,” Marty said.