Tools & Resources
All New Steel Glaciarium Skates Away
Oksana Syskava of Glenwood at Glaciarium Ice Skating Centre - designed using COLORBOND® Metallic steel in the colour Citi® for the internal walls and main ceiling
| Location: | Sydney, NSW |
| Country: | Australia |
| Project Size: | A$12 million |
| Client: | Sydney Glaciarium |
| Fabricator: | Austec Panel Systems |
| Project Team: | Ken McPhail Cooper Development Corporation Ph: 02 9987 2966 |
| Products Used: |
Insulated Panels COLORBOND® Metallic steel |
A new world class ice skating venue in Sydney's northwestern suburbs is set to build on the recent Winter Olympic Games success and make Australia a serious force in ice skating. The new Glaciarium Ice Skating Centre at Baulkham Hills is the first truly international standard ice skating venue in Australia.
The finished ice rink measures 60 metres by 30 metres, 10 metres longer and five metres wider than an Olympic swimming pool, in accordance with international requirements.
The Glaciarium name harks back to a popular 1920s ice skating centre near Sydney's Central Railway Station, but any comparison between its latest incarnation and the original is in name only.
The new facility is the brainchild of Cooper Development Corporation Managing Director Bob Cooper, a keen skater who played ice hockey in his youth and who is still involved in ice hockey.
The new Glaciarium will cater for all forms of recreation on ice, including skating for the public, ice hockey, figure skating, ice dancing, speed skating and even curling, with additional facilities for spectators, including a restaurant and coffee shop.
Cooper Development Corporation Design Manager Ken McPhail said most ice rinks in Australia have traditionally been large industrial sheds.
"We're the only rink that has gone that step further to develop an ice skating centre that is similar to the other Olympic sports facilities that Sydney now has," he said.
"Our design stems from a desire to present a very fresh and very bright new image, which is why the entire rear wall is one huge window - as close as we can manage in Australia to an outdoor skating centre."
"It's the most efficient surface colour for the interior of a cold space, with minimal heat radiating from the insulated panels into the space because of its low emissivity," Mr McPhail said.
"The 17 metre long panels covering the side walls are not only the largest we have ever seen, but as a self-finished interior/exterior surface they're ideal in terms of quality and cost efficiency."
