Design revealed for Calgary Flames arena

Image: HOK

Renderings have been revealed of the new event centre that will replace the aging Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary, Canada as home of the NHL’s Calgary Flames.

CBC said the name of the new arena – Scotia Place – was inadvertently revealed just hours before the official announcement and ground-breaking at the building site in the community of Victoria Park.

The City Council said the building’s design is influenced by the ancestral land of Indigenous peoples and of a shared purpose – to gather.

Scotia Place, which is scheduled to open in fall 2027, celebrates the area’s importance as a place for all and will be a landmark attraction in Calgary’s emerging Culture + Entertainment District.

Image: HOK

More than a building, however, the 10-acre city block is designed for community and connection and includes a community rink, outdoor and indoor plazas spaces, four restaurants, the Calgary Flames Team Store, and future development opportunity in the northeast corner.

It will provide gathering places and amenities for the 8,000 people who will live in the new downtown neighbourhood.

The Calgary Flames are a professional ice hockey team based in Calgary. The Flames compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference, and are the third major professional ice hockey team to represent the city of Calgary, Canada.

Unveiling the new building’s design, the City said in a statement, “A striking feature of the building is the central structure with a textured flame motif that emulates a home fire, which is further amplified when it is lit at night.

Image: HOK

“The home fire, a place of warmth and energy that brings people together to share stories of the past and create stories for the future, rises from the white, glacial-like forms that define the lower parts of the building.”

The look and feel of the project also takes inspiration from all four elements of nature — fire, ice, land and air.

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, City of Calgary officials, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and members of the Calgary Sports and Entertainment Corporation (CSEC) — the group that owns the Calgary Flames, Calgary Hitmen, Calgary Roughnecks, and Calgary Wranglers — announced details about the 18,000-seat arena that will replace the circa-1983 Scotiabank Saddledome, along with a new community rink.

The 19,289-capacity Scotiabank Saddledome is a multiuse indoor arena in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Located in Stampede Park in the Southeast end of downtown Calgary, the Saddledome was built in 1983 to replace the Stampede Corral as the home of the Calgary Flames and to host ice hockey and figure skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

Image: HOK

Gonek said, “When you consider that Calgary is already the envy of other cities with a new world-class convention centre in the heart of the Culture + Entertainment District, the addition of Scotia Place is another signal to investors that our city understands how to build a future that leverages hospitality and hosting as its core strengths.

“We are also acknowledging and honouring the foundational role that Indigenous communities have played for generations in making Calgary, and now Scotia Place, a space where we all belong.”

A development permit application for the new venue was submitted on July 19, 2024. This was a significant milestone for the project team, consisting of CAA ICON, HOK-DIALOG, and CANA/Mortenson.

The province will cover the cost of demolishing the Saddledome, the second oldest arena in the NHL, once the new arena is open in 2027.

Acknowledging the significance of the building’s location at the confluence of the Bow and Elbow Rivers on the ancestral land of the Treaty 7 Peoples and the Metis Nation, The City, CSEC, HOK-DIALOG and CAA ICON worked with an Indigenous Advisory Group that included representatives from the Treaty 7 Nations, the Métis Nation of Alberta, Region 3, and the Urban Indigenous community throughout the design process.

Construction begins this week.

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