Anaheim Ice

Anaheim Ice, for­merly known as Disney Ice, is an in­door ice rink com­plex in Ana­heim, Cal­i­for­nia. It is known for being one of the major works of ar­chi­tect Frank Gehry. It was the prac­tice and train­ing rink of the Ana­heim Ducks of the Na­tional Hockey League until those op­er­a­tions were moved to Great Park Ice in 2019. Cur­rently, the venue hosts youth hockey, fig­ure skat­ing events, and pub­lic skat­ing. Ad­di­tion­ally, it serves as the home rink for the University of South­ern California club hockey team,^[2] and was the site of the 2010 PAC-8 Hockey Con­fer­ence Tour­na­ment, hosted by USC.^[3]

History

Disney Ice was com­mis­sioned by Disney's then-CEO Michael Eis­ner, who said, »I was look­ing for the next gen­er­a­tion of Amer­i­can ar­chi­tects – and he was on the list of ar­chi­tects who were push­ing the en­ve­lope. We bought a hockey team. We needed a prac­tice rink.«^[4] The fa­cil­ity re­sem­bles a pair of huge quon­set huts, and has a wooden in­te­rior with lam­i­nated beams and braces, pro­duc­ing »a nau­ti­cal ef­fect that re­calls the in­verted ship shape of Gehry's Dis­ney Con­cert Hall«.^[5] It opened in 1995.

When the Ana­heim Ducks (then known as the Mighty Ducks of Ana­heim) were sold to Henry Samueli and his wife Susan in 2005, Dis­ney Ice was also sold to the Samuelis, who re­named it Ana­heim Ice.

In late 2019, the Ducks re­lo­cated their prac­tices to Great Park Ice in Irvine, California.

On March 14, 2020, Ana­heim Ice tem­porar­ily sus­pended all op­er­a­tions due to the COVID-19 pan­demic.^[6] De­spite later re­sum­ing op­er­a­tions, Ana­heim Ice fa­cil­i­ties agreed to com­ply with on­go­ing Cal­i­for­nia state COVID-19 guide­lines in Au­gust 2020.^[7]

References