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| 5630 Dunbar St. at 41st Ave. 604-684-4613 |
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The Richmond Olympic Oval opens to the public. |
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On Friday, December 12, Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie hosted the official opening of the Olympic Speed Skating Oval, joined by Minister of State for sport Gary Lunn, Premier Gordon Campbell, Chief Ernie Campbell and Tewanee Joseph of the Musqueam First Nations and Olympic gold medal winners Cindy Klassen and Kyle Hamilton. They were joined on stage by the Band of the 15th Field Regiment, several choirs and a host of solo performers. By 4:30 when the doors opened, several thousand people were lined up around the building in the pouring rain. Only the first thousand would be able to sit in the bleachers, but the rest could watch the proceedings on a large screen. |
 Construction required 5,600,000 Kilos of steel rebar and 1,100,000 cubic feet of concrete. The inside of the roof is breathtaking, constructed to reduce acoustic echo, it is panelled with 1,000,000 board feet of Mountain Pine Beetle lumber.
The building is enormous, the inside has a total of 512,000 square feet on three levels, the main level could contain 4 747's. The land was prepared with 170,000 cubic meters of sand to pre-load the site and the building sits on 2,653 pilings. Richmond is an alluvial island at sea level and the ground is rather squishy. |
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 The roof is 6.5 acres and rainwater is carried by hidden drainspouts to run down the outside edge of the concrete buttresses on the North side, where Musqueam artist Susan Point created carvings of Coast Salish stylized salmon and herons.
The water splashes down the carvings of the buttresses into shallow traughs which carry it across the plaza and into the Fraser River. Most of the rainwater collected from the roof is stored in cisterns and used as "grey" |
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| water in the building such as flushing toilets. Which has led to head scratching signs above the urinals in the men's room which read "Non-potable water, do not drink."
The Oval is located at 6111 River Road in Richmond, just South of Vancouver. It is about a mile north-east of Richmond City Centre, just off Number Two Road. |
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| Although the building is complete, other than the plaza on the north side, the grounds are still a quagmire. What's coming though, is a First Nations sculpture garden, a water feature and a digital Graffiti wall where you can "paint" graffiti with computers. | ||
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| There is a speed skating oval in Calgary, built for the 1988 Olympics and home of Team Canada Skating. So after the 2010 Games, the Richmond Oval will be reconfigured as a multi-purpose sporting complex.
The Oval will host its first major speed skating competition, the Canadian Single Distance Championships, featuring top skaters from Canada’s national team from Dec. 27-31, 2008. The World Single Distance Championships, an official sport event for the 2010 Games, will be hosted at the Oval from March 12-15, 2009. Public programming, including skating, fitness, and sport activities, will begin in the Oval on Dec. 14, with expanded programming beginning in early January. During the pre-Games period, the 400-metre speed skating track, will be complemented by a hardwood court area, large enough to accommodate up to four full-sized basketball courts. Also available will be specialized fitness studios for rowing and spinning, and targeted resistance programs. A general fitness centre and a variety of multi-activity rooms will also be among the amenities available in the Oval when it opens. |
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| A wide variety of competitions, ranging from speed skating to futsal (indoor soccer), volleyball and wheelchair sports, will be held at the Oval during 2009, including some events for the BC Seniors Games, which will be held in Richmond in September 2009.
After the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the Oval will expand to its permanent full-use model with the capability of hosting both summer and winter sports simultaneously. Indoor track, badminton, volleyball, basketball, combative and wheelchair sports, indoor soccer, gymnastics and special events are just some examples of the Oval’s many uses. |
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| The opening ceremonies began with the trooping of the colours, followed by moving short speaches from the politicians and athletes assembled and ending with some spectacular performances from the entertainers, including an arial ballet by the Aeriosa Dance Society. | ||
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| Finally, all the assembled dignitaries moved onto the ice to cut the red ribbon. | ||
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| That opened the ice to the public, led by Miga, Quatchi and Sumi, the Olympic mascots, members of Team Canada speed skating team and hundreds of 4 ft tall hocky players. | ||
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| The ceremonies over, the thousands of people present milled around taking in the building and lining up for skate rental (free with a donation to the Food Bank).
This author took a tour, starting with a closer look at the ceiling. British Columbia, whose main industry is logging and forest products, has been devastated in recent years by an infestation of Pine Beetle from Asia. The beetle bores through tree bark and lays it's eggs. The grubs that hatch eat through the tree's circulatory system under the bark, killing the tree. Thousands of square miles have been destroyed, but coming from the philosophy of "when you're dealt lemons, make lemonade," the Government is harvesting the trees and finding uses for the timber. |
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| All of the wood in the Richmond Oval is Pine Beetle timber and given the size of the ceiling, the effect is spectacular.
The artistic installments of the ROO are the largest investments in public art in Richmond's history. Most of the art installments will be outside and completed next Summer, but there is one astounding sculpture inside on the top level. It is a speed skater, and it is made entirely of reclaimed auto parts. |
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| The third level of the rink is a gym, with some of the best top end, cutting edge equipment available. It will be avilable to the public, as will all the amenities, at a membership of a dollar a day. | ||
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| The second level, at ground level off the North Plaza, is the largest, with the ice surface, many multi-purpose rooms and an aerobics room. | ||
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| The lower level, at ground level on the South side, will be the main entrance during and after the games. There is a three story rotunda, many meeting rooms, stairs to the center of the rink above and several specialty gyms. | ||
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| At a cost of $178 million, the ROO is the largest and most expensive venue for the 2010 Olympic Games. Jack Poole, the CEO of Poole Construction and official contractor of games venues, said in his speach that he had been to the past 4 Olympic Games and that he had seen nothing to compare to this arena.
I suspect that there is a smidge of personal bias, but it is indeed a spectacular building. I'm sure that people from all over the Lower Mainland will be coming here to be able to say they used the facilities. I mayself have a cousin and her family coming from Winnipeg just to skate here. Congratulations Richmond. Other Olympic-related Newsletters: Royal Canadian Mint launches ice sledge hockey quarter |
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Newsletter #158 |
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