Orange County Boasts Largest Ice Complex in California

Swinerton has completed construction of the Great Park Ice and Fivepoint Arena in Irvine, California. Located in Orange County Great Park, the ice complex is the county’s first ice rink in 20 years and will house four rinks – three NHL rinks and one Olympic-sized rink. It will serve as the new training facility for the Anaheim Ducks National Hockey League team, as well as Olympic figure skating training. It will provide the public—especially local children—with new opportunities to learn and excel at ice sports. At 270,000 square feet, the Great Park Ice complex is not only the largest in the state of California, but one of the largest in the country.

The complex features a unique composition of two pre-engineered metal buildings and one conventional building, allowing it to move flexibly in a seismic event and provide higher resistance to seismic tremors. PEMBs have the ability to withstand seismic movement of up to 10 inches, while conventional buildings withstand two inches. Additionally, PEMB offers a cost-efficient alternative to conventional building design in commercial applications.

While most PEMBs are standalone structures, the Great Park Ice center marries two PEMBs with a conventional building in between. The complex design required Swinerton to construct it with an undetectable space between the three buildings to allow for potential seismic movement.

The main arena at Great Park Ice will hold 2,500 individuals and will provide space to host a wide variety of sporting and entertainment events. It will feature a sports bar, party rooms, classrooms and outdoor public spaces and amenities. The other side of the building will hold three ice rinks with a capacity of 500 people. One rink will be used for Olympic figure skating training; the other two will be available for a variety of public ice-related sports, filling a countywide need for ice sports activities including youth and adult hockey programs, figure skating, regional and national tournaments and competitions, as well as open public recreational skating. The middle, conventional building will hold the facility’s lobby, the Ducks’ training center and offices.

Construction on the comprehensive LEED Silver facility began in October 2017. Swinerton hired Rink-Tec, a rink building specialist based in Minnesota, for its expertise in building professional skating facilities, which contributed to the completion of the project on schedule.