New Anaheim Ice Center Design Will Go With the Floe

With an undulating profile and gleaming surface that makes it resemble two icy hillocks, Frank O. Gehry’s design for an 85,000-square-foot community ice center is in keeping with his view of buildings as “sculptural objects.”

In contrast, the interior will be made of curved, laminated wood beams, except for a concrete central area, which will house locker rooms, exercise rooms, a restaurant and community meeting places.

When it opens next August or September, the corrugated aluminum building by the controversial Los Angeles architect will be the practice home base for the Mighty Ducks as well as a site for public skating and community programs.

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With both a National Hockey League-size rink and a slightly larger Olympic-size rink, the center will provide 13,000 hours of ice time annually. Because the Mighty Ducks require only 150 to 200 hours per year, there will be ample opportunity for public participation.

Bruce Berg, the Disney Co.’s director of development, said the company is trying to come up with a name for the building. And, no, it won’t be “DUCKS.”

Though the city is donating the site--at the southwestern corner of Lincoln Avenue and Clementine Street--the Disney Co. is bankrolling the project. According to Berg, it is company policy not to reveal project costs.

Gehry’s design for the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, funded in part by a $50-million donation from Walt Disney’s widow, Lillian, has been criticized for complexities that have boosted the cost to $260 million--$50 million more than the original estimate.

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That turn of events is ironic in view of Gehry’s fame for what he once dubbed “cheapskate architecture.” His buildings typically incorporate such inelegant materials as corrugated metal and chain link.

Gehry’s other projects in Orange County include University Park Apartments in Irvine and, on the UC Irvine campus, Rockwell Engineering Center and the neighboring Information and Computer Sciences/Engineering Research facility.