Inuvik Community Greenhouse

Converted hockey arena that now grows tomatoes 200 km north of the Arctic Circle

Address 112 Distributor Street

Inuvik's most surprising building is a converted hockey arena turned greenhouse. Outside, it looks like any 1980s rink — corrugated steel, low slung. Inside, the roof has been replaced with a clear dome and the floor with hundreds of raised beds growing tomatoes, peppers, herbs, lettuce, and flowers through the 56-day Arctic summer.

The greenhouse is run by a non-profit member-cooperative and is open to visitors most afternoons in summer. Tours run when staff are available — five dollars, very short, fascinating. It is one of the more practical demonstrations of life above the Arctic Circle and well worth half an hour.

things to do sight
A story
The arena was decommissioned in 1998. A local group spent the next two years stripping out the ice plant, building raised beds on the bleachers, and installing a polycarbonate dome. By 2000 it was the northernmost commercial greenhouse in North America — and growing tomatoes in a building that, twelve years earlier, was hosting hockey games at minus thirty.