The NHL’s New York Islanders have opened the doors to its brand-new 745,000ft2, 17,250-seat UBS Arena, a hockey-specific and entertainment arena in Elmont, New York.
The ownership group behind UBS Arena (Oak View Group, New York Islanders, and Sterling Project Development) worked with Populous who served as the architect on record for the project. The building’s exterior was designed by JRDV Urban Architecture, but Populous developed the arena’s overall layout, seating bowl, location of the suites and clubs, event level spaces, as well as documenting and overseeing design of all interior spaces.
UBS Arena is designed to provide hockey-specific sightlines for Islanders fans by strategically designing the seating bowl to be pushed in toward the ice further than a standard basketball-first arena, producing an intimate experience that makes spectators feel as though they are right on top of the ice.
It features the largest arena scoreboard in New York state, along with two levels of high-resolution LED ribbon boards and state-of-the-art sound systems to add to the gameday experience which also includes 10 bars with views onto the ice, a supporters’ section with 180 safe standing spaces, premium suites throughout the venue.
The arena contains a 23,000ft2 NHL locker room and player campus, which houses a cardio mezzanine level and shoot room for player training. The home team campus features locker rooms for the players and coaches, a weight room, equipment areas, treatment rooms (medical, x-ray, cryotherapy, hydrotherapy, massage, sauna and steam rooms), offices and video rooms. The campus also includes a full kitchen, which opens to the players’ lounge.
With UBS Arena, we partnered with Populous to build an arena that is made for music and built for hockey,” said Tim Leiweke, CEO of Oak View Group. “A massive advantage in designing UBS with Populous was the ability to design from scratch as we weren’t constrained by any existing infrastructure. We were gifted an amazing opportunity to take the plans and build it the right way, from the load-in and load-out of the truck dock, to artists’ dressing rooms. I am very confident that UBS Arena will quickly become the venue that all future arenas will be measured against.”
