The Great Park Ice & FivePoint Arena celebrated its grand opening in March 2019. The new premier $104.0 million community ice and sports facility is located within Orange County’s Great Park.
The new 280,000-square foot, LEED Silver sports facility features four indoor ice rinks: two 600-seat NHL regulation, one 2,500-seat NHL regulation, and one 600-seat Olympic size sheets. The facility includes figure skating spaces, training facilities with a dryland training area, plunge pools, sauna, weightlifting rooms, numerous locker rooms, 30,000-square foot lobby, two concessions areas, full-service bar/restaurant, retail space, meeting rooms, fireplace and outdoor recreational areas. The complex serves as the new training facility for the Anaheim Ducks NHL and U.S. Figure Skating teams. Also offered are public skating sessions and events such as broomball, youth hockey tournaments, figure skating and curling leagues.
The building was constructed using economical premanufactured metal. Our experience as a national leader in ice rink dehumidification was used to assure that ideal arena conditions are maintained for year-round operation in the Southern California climate. Mechanical systems included highly efficient variable refrigerant flow systems for the offices, training and team spaces. Air-to-air energy recovery systems were used to pretreat outside in all four rinks, locker rooms areas and the Anaheim Ducks training center. Heat reclaim from the refrigeration plant was used for domestic water heating, ice rink subfloor heating and ice melt pit heating. The building mechanical systems are 40% more efficient than a base code building model. The project is seeking LEED Silver certification.
One of the unique mechanical design elements included in the building was the use of reclaimed water as a source for the ice rink flooding and resurfacing. Our team worked closely with the Irvine Ranch Water District to save an estimated 4,350,000 gallons per year of potable water by using reclaimed water for the ice rink systems.
Nelson-Rudie was recognized by the American Council of Engineering Companies, Minnesota Chapter (ACEC/MN) with a 2020 Honor Award for this project.
