Interesting article on ideas for new Lynah

However, there is no way in hell that you could get a building permit to double the size, without bringing it up to code. Too bad there wasn't a more limited mission with realistic goals. I sure hope if we get a fabric dome, we can AC it, unlike the Carrier Dome. Speaking of that, do you think they can change the name of the Carrier Dome now that Carrier has taken all production out of Syracuse?

OK, now that I've gotten the link to work and actually read the story I'm not feeling as eeewww'ed. I do think that a big dome feel is the absolute last thing you'd want at Lynah though. I really can't think of many good things to say about domes in general, but they would seem particularly out of place to me in a hockey rink.

Personally I'd hate to ever see the rafters go (replacing them with steel for structural reasons might be OK). They help give the place a small intimate feel. Plus, you need a place to hang all of the banners that's close to the action.

One thing the article doesn't mention is acoustics. I wonder if the students were asked to consider this in their design. The last thing you want is a roof concept that absorbs all of the sound and makes the thing.

Of course, there's no way they would double the seating capacity of Lynah because I guarantee you'd end up with lots of empty seats if you did. But this concept probably makes a better CivE project than adding 300 seats and new locker rooms.

Just to clear a couple things up (and answer a few of your questions), I'm one of the students in Prof. Hover's CEE 474 class that did semester long projects on the renovation and expansion of Lynah Rink. I frequent elynah forums to read the articles but have never actually posted before.

There were 11 projects in total, and some of the projects had very creative, fresh ideas; it was a few of these that were picked out to be highlighted in the article because of their uniqueness (i.e. a clear roof or cloth roof was not the norm).
For the question above on acoustics, actually, most groups chose to use Tectum III roof deck panels which do help control acoustics.

I can only speak for my particular group's design, but a few key points from our design was:
-maintain the benches and ice rink as they currently stand
-added an upper deck level with stadium seating to both sides of the rink that added a total of 2,050 new seats
-added rows of corporate boxes the university was looking at adding for alumni and university donors (this would also free up section C to unite the student sections)
-we also took into account that the new life sciences building set to begin construction in 2005 that will sit on the athletic fields to the north of lynah rink is a Richard Meier '56 design and will be bright white in color (fabricated out of glass and white metal panels) so we specified an exterior of red brick in order to blend in well with the surroundings
-from a meeting with Mike Schafer '86 my group held, we incorporated some of his concerns into our renovation, mostly by drastically increasing the amount of space appropriated to locker rooms, training rooms, equipment rooms, and office space.

It's a shame the article doesn't go into more depth, but all projects were very impressive with the amount of detail and thought that went into all aspects of design for every group.

Thanks for the background info. Sounds like you were pretty thorough, which I guess I would expect from a semester long design project. (Well, mine wasn't too thorough in M&AE, but that wasn't typical...)

IMNSHO, any renovation that seeks to improve the locker room and equipment facilties should try very hard to preserve the "character" of the visiting locker rooms... Keep 'em as uncomfortable as possible

Thanks for the extra details. For the record, I think that the sentiment here is generally against "controlling the acoustics," unless that means concentrating the crowd noise onto the ice.

or controlling the acoustics could mean preventing them from exiting or being absorbed. aren't there music people who know about amplifying sound thru design...or is that what he meant. anyway, just because people dont want an expansion does not mean thought for change shouldnt happen...

[Q]KeithK Wrote:

Thanks for the background info. Sounds like you were pretty thorough, which I guess I would expect from a semester long design project. (Well, mine wasn't too thorough in M&AE, but that wasn't typical...)

IMNSHO, any renovation that seeks to improve the locker room and equipment facilties should try very hard to preserve the "character" of the visiting locker rooms... Keep 'em as uncomfortable as possible [/q]

I bet what Cornell is looking for is four (?) not terrible visiting locker rooms. Cornell hosts tournaments once in a while and while you don't want Clarkson to get too comfy before the Cornell game, you do want visiting HS teams to think better of Cornell. How many non-Cornell team locker rooms are there now, two?

I just stumbled across this so pardon the delay in posting this comment.

Given that this article was created and several key members of the administration that would be pivotal in any expansion were present for the presentations, it seems like this idea is being given more serious thought. Wasn't Schafer interviewed late last year or the year before and some of the questions concerned his desire to work on expanding the locker room facilities mainly?

Haven't they thrown money at upgrading the lockerrooms about 5 times in the last 15 years? Sure seems like it.

Luxury boxes are a horrible idea. If a seating capacity renovation isn't cost-effective on its own merit, there is no point doing it.

I haven't seen a building built in the last 25 years that compares favorably to Lynah. Either (a) it's not possible given modern codes or (b) nobody's come up with any good ideas yet. But in either case, hopefully nothing will happen.

some boxes, 300 seats, same roof, soon

[Q]Cant Say Wrote:

some boxes, 300 seats, same roof, soon[/q]

is this as an expansion adding seats to the current scoreboard end and building into the parking lot? i know u said u cant say but...

yup