Rosemary Brown Arena

Project updates

The arena’s concrete rink slabs are ready for action

We recently finished pouring the concrete rink slabs that will form the basis for ice sports, lacrosse, ball and inline hockey and more on the facility’s 2 NHL-sized rinks with team rooms. 

We poured 240 cubic metres of concrete for each rink slab. Each rink’s concrete was poured in one continuous action over 18 hours thanks to the careful preparation of the concrete formwork, refrigeration piping and steel reinforcement. In the days following the pour, we flooded the slabs with water to cure the concrete. This flooding creates a unique, temporary mirror effect that is emphasized by the water.  

The next steps in the arena’s construction include completing work to finish the ceiling above the rinks before the rink boards (called dasher boards) and glass are installed. Construction is anticipated to be complete by fall 2023. 

Watch the video below to see a time lapse of Arena A’s concrete being poured.

This facility will be named the Rosemary Brown Arena, in honour of politician and social justice champion Rosemary Brown. 

Rosemary Brown (1930-2003) was a pioneer politician, community leader and human rights champion who used her voice to fight discrimination against women and people of colour. She served as a prominent Burnaby MLA from 1979 to 1986, and was the first Black woman elected to a provincial legislature in Canada. 

Public art: Gliding Edge

By local BC artist Jill Anholt, “Gliding Edge” takes inspiration from the persistence and determination required to learn the challenging skill of ice skating, as well the incredible sensation of weightlessness, fluidity and dynamism that is experienced once this skill is mastered.

Jill hopes that this work will engage people of all ages within their own lived experience of learning this skill, while also being aspirational to those who are still struggling through the long and arduous process of mastering the art of ice skating. The work is created from singular metal blade-like forms that begin at the ground: wobbling, tilting and crossing one another before they gradually coalesce together into a singular dynamic fluid sculptural form. Taking shape across the entire length of the public art site directly outside of the lobby space, the work moves from the ground to the sky where it carves dynamically through space: rising, falling, swooping, curving, and seemingly gliding weightlessly through the air.

At night, sequenced LED lights located above the artwork create shifting shadows on the ground, evocative of the temporal carvings of skate blade patterns in the ice - overlapping and changing shape and form throughout the evening and dark early mornings.