Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Courtesy IQRemix/Flickr (left) and jasonwoodhead23/Flickr (right).
Thornton Tomasetti provided structural design and façade engineering services for the 18,500-seat ice hockey arena that is the new home of the National Hockey League’s Edmonton Oilers. It replaces the Oiler’s old home, Rexall Place. The new arena is a major entertainment center and attraction for the province.
Located on a 16-acres site in Edmonton’s downtown area, the arena complex includes an ice surface that can be used as event space and support facilities such as an additional community ice rink, pedestrian bridge, above-grade parking and an office building. The community rink also serves as Oilers practice space and can be used for smaller local events.
Finding a structural solution that met the needs of the project’s unique geometry was a major challenge. Design elements that needed to be accommodated included large un-braced column lengths, transfers of major column lines, large irregularly shaped slab openings and a long-span roof. The building sits on belled caissons with cast-in-place concrete lower levels and a steel-framed superstructure at the upper levels. A 40-meter enclosed bridge spanning over 104th Avenue links the site of a future development to the south where it lands on slide bearings. The bridge’s mostly glass façade rises more than 20 meters above the deck creating an expansive winter garden.
The winter garden bridge connects the arena and public transportation system to a $2.5 billion-dollar development known as the Ice District. Thornton Tomasetti is also the structural engineer of record for a 56-story hotel and residential tower in the Ice District.
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