Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

\"The Yale Whale";"Connecticut Register of Historic Places
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Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

Site overview

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2,900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200' x 85' skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40' on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

Site overview

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2,900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200' x 85' skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40' on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

Site overview

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2,900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200' x 85' skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40' on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

Site overview

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2,900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200' x 85' skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40' on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Davis S. Ingalls Hockey Rink

Site overview

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2,900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200' x 85' skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40' on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Awards

Design

Award of Excellence

Civic

A Civic/Institutional Design Award of Excellence is awarded for the restoration of the Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University. In selecting the project, the jury noted the exemplary attention to detail in the preservation and seamless expansion of the site. Completed in 1958, Saarinen himself said, “I believe it is the best building we have done.” As the successor to the Saarinen practice, Yale sought Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates on the 50th anniversary of the project to direct the restoration and expansion of the building to address the present and future needs of the Yale Hockey Program. This included repairs of the exterior concrete shell, system upgrades, and a 12,700 square foot addition that allowed for state of the art lockers and training facilities for both the women and men’s hockey programs. The addition was masterfully integrated into the surrounding landscape and as a piece of architecture, stood on its own yet was subordinate to its historic context. Impressively, the entire project was accomplished without interrupting the Yale hockey season. 

“The restoration showed a clear understanding of the project, and the addition stood on its own yet was not overbearing next to the original design.” The jury noted, “This project answers the question: How does one add to an icon? It involved the careful preservation of this iconic building and its materials, as well as the design of an appropriate and sensitively sited new addition. It was a complex project guided by a strong conservation philosophy.”

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Client

Yale University

Restoration Team

Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates (Architect)

How to Visit

See schedule for hockey season and open skating hours

Location

73 Sachem Street
New Haven, CT, 06511-3518

Country

US
More visitation information

Designer(s)

Related News

Commission

1952

Completion

1958

Commission / Completion details

Eero Saarinen, architect. Douglas Orr,associate architect Fred Severud; Severud, Elstad, Krueger Associates, structural engineer

Original Brief

Commission 1952(e). completion 1958(e).

Significant Alteration(s) with Date(s)

The building as a whole is in excellent condition.

Current Use

Technically and visually, the most notable feature of the concrete and aluminum building is the sweeping aluminum and wood roof. The roof is hung in a saddle shape from a great central spine and held in place by a grid of cables running parallel and perpendicular to the spine, forming a tensioned web. Wood slats on the roof work well with the concrete formwork, and though some have been replaced, most have survived. Saarinen sheathed the roof with neoprene, a material he first used at the GM Technical Center to hold curtain wall windows in place. On top of the roof, there are three guy wires (bracing cables 1 3/4 in diameter), which help it resist snow loads.

Current Condition

Continued use as hockey and ice skating rink for Yale University.

General Description

Saarinen hired Fred Severud, the noted engineer to work with him on the design of the rink. They developed a roof hung in a saddle shape from a great central spine and held in place by a grid of cables running parallel and perpendicular to the spine, forming a tensioned web. The roof was covered with a membrane of wood slats. Saarinen's design was an innovative approach to these ideas and also one of the most expressve uses of this type of modern technology.

Original Physical Context

Designed by Eero Saarinen and completed in 1958, the David S. Ingalls Hockey Rink at Yale University is an extraordinary building, a highpoint in expressive modern architecture. Commissioned to design the rink, Saarinen developed a uniquely sculptural building, resembling something like a slithering beast, with 2, 900 seats set stadium fashion around a 200 by 85 foot skating area. Saarinen wanted to bring people into the rink on the southern, campus side and he wanted the movement of the skaters toward the goals to follow that processional route. The curved form also sweeps the observer along and into the action. The great arching spine of the building is visible and dominant inside and out, with the central arch reaching 75 feet in height and cantilevering out 40 feet on each end to support the roof over the entrances.

Social

Each of Eero Saarinen's projects are unique and particular forms specifially designed for a certian set of circumstances, functionally and humanistically. The Ingalls Rink expressed movement through its scluptural organic form inside and out, setting an innovative and unique standard to approaches in expressive modern architecture.

Cultural & Aesthetic

At the time Saarinen was designing the Ingalls Rink, there were many experimental structural systems emerging, particulariy in regards to tension structures and large slung roofs. Saarinen was influenced at the time by Matthew Nowicki√.s design for the North Carolina State Livestock Judging Pavilion of 1950-1952, Paul Rudolph and Twitchell for a tension structure house in Florida, Bill Irwin in Melbourne who was working on an Olympic Swimming Stadium and a Music Bowl and Luigi Nervi who was building the Sports Palace in Rome. Hugh Stubbins would soon design a cross-cable saddle for the Congress Hall in Berlin (1957).

Historical

The Ingalls Hockey Rink is a remarkable advancement in cable supported membrane roofs, becoming an icon in the experimental use of this technological innovation. Saarinen√.s use of the hung roof here influenced his design for Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, VA (1962). The development of an innovative design by a well-known architect for a sports complex, set a precedent for future such commissions.

General Assessment

Fred N. Severud and Raniero G. Corbelletti, Hung Roofs, Progressive Architecture, Mar. 1956, pp. 99-107.Hockey rink at Yale. Architectural Record v 122 Aug 1957. p. 186-9.Fred N. Severud, Arches and Catenaries Carry Rink Roof for Yale’s Hockey Rink, New Haven, Engineering News Record, April 10, 1958, p. 30-31, 33.Fred N. Severud, Cable Suspended Roof for Yale Hockey Rink, Civil Engineering, Sept. 1958, p. 60-63.Yale's hockey rink; Architectural Record v 124 Oct 1958. p. 151-8.Recent work of Eero Saarinen, with some statements of Eero Saarinen; Hockey rink, Yale University, fall 1958; E. Saarinen, arch, p. 46-53, Zodiac no 4 1959. p. 30-67, 194.Donald Vesley, Yale Architecture and the Hockey Rink, Criterion, Jan. 1959, p. 15-18.Walter McQuade, ‘Exploded landscape’ p. 83-90; (Rudolph, Johnson, Saarinen, Johansen, Kahn); Sibyl Moholy-Nagy, ‘Cantus firmus of Eero Saarinen’, p. 66-7.Robin Boyd, ‘Under Tension’, Architectural Review, Nov. 1963, p 324-334.Peter Blake, No Place Like Utopia (W. W. Norton, New York, 1993), p. 206, 259.

References

Serianne Worden, September 8, 2004