The half-frozen shorelines of Kew, Scarborough and Balmy beaches never looked so good, as the seven winners of the second annual Winter Stations Design Competition were formally unveiled on Monday.

The installations — one of them a sphere called In the Belly of a Bear, whichcould be easily mistaken for a giant coconut — will remain open for public viewing until March 20.

Steel-pipe lifeguard stands dotted along the beaches form the base of the competition, literally. Artists and architects were invited in November to submit proposals on how they would transform a station into art, while embracing this year’s theme of “Freeze/Thaw.”

Krista Moroz, who attended as part of a Family Day outing, called the public art display an “amazing initiative.”

“It brings people down here in the winter and costs nothing to do,” she said.

Each display attracted both chilly and warm reception.

Montreal’s MUDO team, composed of Élodie Doukhan and Nicolas Mussche, came up with the idea of draping a lifeguard stand with rope to provide visitors with “a highly sensory experience.”

“It's a mystery,” said Victoria Drysdale, moments after stepping inside the rope jungle. “I thought it would be warmer.”

Three post-secondary institutions also participated. OCAD University environmental design student Hamid Shahi was helping his teammates with final assembly of their creation, The Steam Canoe, early Monday afternoon.

Carefully cut red oak veneer panels were slowly taking the shape of an upside-down canoe. The high-tech entry also featured a quasi-smoke machine at the rear, with solar tubes that turn snow into steam.

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The team pre-built the structure inside a factory on even ground, but reassembling it atop a sandy shoreline was a little problematic. “The wind and cold today has been an extra challenge,” Shahi said.

The warming huts were a pleasant surprise for Joan Parker, who stumbled unexpectedly upon this year’s iteration of the annual competition.

“This makes a walk along the beach that much more interesting,” she said. “It’s the icing on the cake.”

As it did last year, the competition drew some international entrants.

The U.K.’s Claire Fernley and James Fox treated beachgoers to a taste of Scandinavian-style winter bathing, thanks to their immersive project, Sauna. Inside the long, narrow structure, visitors were invited to warm up alongside a wood-burning stove — a popular idea on a cold, if no longer frigid, kind of day.