Scotia Place: What to know about the design of the new events centre

It’s a big, ambitious project.

The design for Calgary’s new events centre, officially to be known as Scotia Place, was unveiled on Monday morning.

Here are the basics: The plan is for the new building to open in September of 2027.

There will be 18,400 seats for hockey games, as well as 52 private suites.

There’s a lot more to it, though. The building incorporates a “central structure with a textured flames motif that emulates a home fire, which is further amplified when it is lit at night.”

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The lower parts of the building are meant to represent ice, and it’s a striking, moving contrast for a project that is steeped in community and history.

“It was important for us to come up with a story that resonated with this place,” said Bill Johnson, design lead for international architecture company HOK. “This is a meeting place and this was the birthplace of this community.”

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Here’s a few things to know about what Calgarians should be expecting from Scotia Place:

Think Detroit

The design team travelled across the continent to get a better idea of what worked at some of the most loved rinks in Canada and North America.

And while they were able to take best practices from each of them, it was Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena that inspired the design for Scotia Place the most.

That building opened in 2017 and has served as a beacon for the rejuvenation of downtown Detroit. It’s intimate, multi-use — both the NBA’s Pistons and the NHL’s Red Wings call it home — has wide concourses and incorporates its city’s sports history.

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This writer considers it the best arena he’s visited in his travels.

There will be elements of the new events centre that were inspired by other buildings, to be sure, but take a look at Little Caesars if you want some sense of what might be in store for Calgarians.

Little Caesars Arena is seen during a media preview tour in Detroit, Michigan on September, 6, 2017. Jason Kryk/Windsor StarOn top of the action

When Johnson was speaking, he contrasted the intimacy of the new event centre’s spectator experience with Edmonton’s Rogers Place, which he said had deliberately aimed for a wider bowl.

Scotia Place, on the other hand, will have fans right on top of the action at hockey games. The bowl will be steeper, basically.

“This is a really intimate space,” Johnson said. “The seating is really close to the action. It’s going to be like playing into a wall of people, I think we’re going to give the Flames an enormous competitive advantage.”

How that affects concerts

That intimacy will also have an impact on concerts and other events that go down at Scotia Place.

The design drawings that Johnson showed had a stage that extended right into the middle of the floor and, again, with a more vertical bowl, fans are going to be closer to their favourite artists than they would be in an arena where the bowl is significantly wider.

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“I believe this will be a world-class, state-of-the-art building that will raise the bar in the entertainment business,” Johnson said. “Flexibility in the building. When concerts or events come, you’re going to feel like you’re right on the action. That’s something CSEC really asked us to achieve.”

Artist’s conception depicting the design of Scotia Place, Calgary’s new arena/event centre in Victoria Park. Rendering courtesy City of CalgaryInside/out

Some people may roll their eyes when they hear the term “events centre” being used instead of “arena” and while on some level they’re probably interchangeable, Monday’s presentation really did emphasize that this new project is more than just a hockey rink.

Even when there aren’t events taking place, there’s going to be a food hall on 12th Avenue that will be open at all times — until three hours before an event, at which point it will become part of the concourse.

There are going to be other restaurant and food options as well, with outdoor access very much a part of the plan.

There’s a massive outdoor plaza at the main entrance, Canada’s longest “digital display” at 140 metres long that Johnson said will be used to “animate the space” and a massive outdoor bar above that same entrance.

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Community rink

While we didn’t get details about the other development that will be built around the new events centre, there were details about the new community arena that will be built right by the project.

It will have seats for 1,000 people, will be below the south plaza and very much designed for community use, but will also be shared for practices by the teams that play at Scotia Place.

Dignitaries official break ground for the new Calgary Event Centre in Calgary on Monday, July 22, 2024. Jim Wells/PostmediaIndigenous leadership

As was mentioned many times throughout the presentation on Monday, the Indigenous Advisory Committee played a big part in building towards the design that was presented on Monday afternoon.

That will be visible in a lot of different ways, including public art on the outside of the building and the parkade on 5A Street.

“The idea is they will actually incorporate art that is important to the Indigenous community,” Johnson explained.

Patience required

This is somewhat separate from what’s been written here, but the reality is the new Scotia Place isn’t going to be open until 2027.

The excavation of the new site is going to start in September and there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.

Getting in and out of the Saddledome was already tough with Green Line construction happening, and it’s probably not going to get any easier over the next couple of years.

Patience is going to be required for anyone attending events at the old rink.

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