Since Rogers Place, the city-owned, $480-million arena and home of the Edmonton Oilers, opened on Sept. 8, the HOK-designed building has been exceeding expectations, hosting more than 500,000 guests in just two months.
The facility, which was not just designed as an NHL stadium, but as a “365-day-a-year destination,” has sold out each Edmonton Oilers game and provided the Western Hockey League’s Edmonton Oil Kings with their largest-ever attendance on a sold-out opening night.
HOK approached the design of Rogers Place by balancing functionality with what they hope will become an iconic design. The arena is connected via its curvilinear architecture across 104th Street with ICE District (which will span 25 acres when completed in 2019-2020) and uses Ford Hall, a 25,000-sf naturally lit grand atrium, as an entrance to the arena.
In total, the arena covers 1.1-million-sf and features the NHL’s largest high-definition scoreboard, more than 1,200 HDTVs, two club lounges, and a full-service restaurant. The arena’s capacity for hockey is 18,347 and 20,147 for concerts.
Rogers Place is also expected to become the first LEED Silver-certified NHL arena in Canada. The facility uses 37% less water and 14% less energy than traditional venues. Additionally, more than 87% of construction debris was recycled or reused and 20 percent of all construction materials were derived from recycled content.
The arena is seen as a major component of ICE District, which will become Canada’s largest mixed-use sports and entertainment district, providing space for private development, office development, residential units, and parking spaces.
Courtesy of HOK
Courtesy of HOK
Rendering courtesy of HOK
Rendering courtesy of HOK
Rendering courtesy of HOK
Related Stories
| Mar 11, 2011
Slam dunk for the University of Nebraska’s basketball arena
The University of Nebraska men’s and women’s basketball programs will have a new home beginning in 2013. Designed by the DLR Group, the $344 million West Haymarket Civic Arena in Lincoln, Neb., will have 16,000 seats, suites, club amenities, loge, dedicated locker rooms, training rooms, and support space for game operations.
| Feb 23, 2011
London 2012: What Olympic Park looks like today
London 2012 released a series of aerial images that show progress at Olympic Park, including a completed roof on the stadium (where seats are already installed), tile work at the aquatic centre, and structural work complete on more than a quarter of residential projects at Olympic Village.
| Jan 21, 2011
Sustainable history center exhibits Fort Ticonderoga’s storied past
Fort Ticonderoga, in Ticonderoga, N.Y., along Lake Champlain, dates to 1755 and was the site of battles in the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. The new $20.8 million, 15,000-sf Deborah Clarke Mars Education Center pays homage to the French magasin du Roi (the King’s warehouse) at the fort.
| Jan 20, 2011
Houston Dynamo soccer team plans new venue
Construction is scheduled to begin this month on a new 22,000-seat Major League Soccer stadium for the Houston Dynamo. The $60 million project is expected to be ready for the 2012 MLS season.
| Jan 20, 2011
Construction begins on second St. Louis community center
O’Fallon Park Recreation Complex in St. Louis, designed by local architecture/engineering firm KAI Design & Build, will feature an indoor aquatic park with interactive water play features, a lazy river, water slides, laps lanes, and an outdoor spray and multiuse pool.
| Nov 16, 2010
Brazil Olympics spurring green construction
Brazil's green building industry will expand in the coming years, spurred by construction of low-impact venues being built for the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee requires arenas built for the 2016 games in Rio de Janeiro meet international standards for low-carbon emissions and energy efficiency. This has boosted local interest in developing real estate with lower environmental impact than existing buildings. The timing couldn’t be better: the Brazilian government is just beginning its long-term infrastructure expansion program.
| Nov 3, 2010
Park’s green education center a lesson in sustainability
The new Cantigny Outdoor Education Center, located within the 500-acre Cantigny Park in Wheaton, Ill., earned LEED Silver. Designed by DLA Architects, the 3,100-sf multipurpose center will serve patrons of the park’s golf courses, museums, and display garden, one of the largest such gardens in the Midwest.
| Nov 3, 2010
Sailing center sets course for energy efficiency, sustainability
The Milwaukee (Wis.) Community Sailing Center’s new facility on Lake Michigan counts a geothermal heating and cooling system among its sustainable features. The facility was designed for the nonprofit instructional sailing organization with energy efficiency and low operating costs in mind.
