Photos by Sheri Regnier
The Home of Champions monument was officially unveiled in front of over 100 people in downtown Trail last Thursday.
The project’s improvements were kept under wraps until dusk.
As the shroud was lifted, the illuminated flame and uplight were dramatically enhanced by a stream of waterworks. The improvement project included panels of high intensity LED lights to illuminate panels at night.
For months, local designer Robert Inwood and his team strove to design an efficient model with minimal long term maintenance and sustainability.
“I don’t think anyone has done something like this before,” he said. “The young guys who were brainstorming with me tread new ground in terms of creating interesting computer models before we even started to producing anything.
Inwood said that the flames were cut using an intricate laser-type cutting machine.
In 1996 when the monument was originally designed and installed, it was supposed to have an eternally-lit olympic flame which ran on gas, said Inwood.
“In our current sustainable eco-environment it didn’t play too well with the public and it was very expensive.”
The eternal olympic flame was replaced with eco-friendly LED light components, making the monument state-of-the-art and inexpensive to keep lit.
“The whole monument runs on less energy than a 300 watt lightbulb,” Inwood explained.
“And if it were to run 24/7, it would be 25 years before you would have to replace a bulb.”