There are upsides to top-loaded seating bowls: delineation of access and circulation between public and participants, as well as minimization of vomitories that are expensive to build and eat up valuable seating real estate. Designers at GEC Architecture in Edmonton, Alta., went the extra mile with the 240-meter circuitous concourse surrounding an international ice sheet and 3,000 seats at Winsport Athletic and Ice Complex, Olympic Park — the Calgary home of Hockey Canada.
Knowing that hockey players often run concourses during training, GEC specified a Robbins Pulastic poured-in-place resilient surfacing and actual running lanes to assist in those endeavors while still standing up to concessions and rest room traffic during events. "We had a very nice space up there, and this facility's major function is as a training facility for the men's and women's hockey teams, and for all winter sports athletes," says GEC partner David Edmunds. "There was no indoor running track as part of the facility, so this is kind of found space. It's almost free space. The cost to do this was essentially the cost of the flooring."
Design Details: Generous Concourse Encourages Social Spaces
This article originally appeared in the January/February issue of Athletic Business with the title, "Design Details."
