Architecture on ice : a history of the hockey arena / Howard Shubert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shubert, Howard, author.

Series:

McGill-Queen's/Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation studies in art history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hockey arenas.

Hockey arenas--Design and construction.

Hockey arenas--Social aspects.

Hockey arenas--History.

Public architecture.

Genre:

History

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 316 pages) : illustrations (some color).

Place of Publication:

Montreal & Kingston ; London ; Chicago : McGill-Queen's University Press, [2016]

Summary:

"Despite the legendary reputations of Madison Square Garden, Maple Leaf Gardens, and the Montreal Forum, skating rinks and hockey arenas may be North America's most overlooked cultural buildings. Architecture on Ice reveals the central role they have played in influencing urban, social, and political life across the continent. In the first book to chart the development of skating rinks and arenas from their origins as simple wooden sheds to today's fully wired, multi-purpose entertainment complexes, Howard Shubert examines how these buildings have been adapted to seasonal change and to a multitude of uses besides skating - from political rallies to rock concerts - and how these adaptations, in turn, have transformed skating, curling, and hockey. Revealing the ways in which arenas are sites where sport, culture, and commerce intersect, Architecture on Ice describes four distinct phases in the development of these buildings: the early rinks and arenas of the mid-nineteenth century to the early twentieth century, the Golden Era of 1920-31, the building boom in postwar arenas from 1960-83, and the postmodern hockey complexes built between 1990 and 2010. Lavishly illustrated with surprising, amusing, and previously unpublished images, Architecture on Ice explains how the construction of buildings engineered the way recreational activities are performed and experienced."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Outdoor games – indoor games

Hockey as entertainment: spectating and the first hockey arenas, 1898-1912

Buildings for mass entertainment

Canada’s secular shrines: myth, memory, and culture

Hockey night in America: the first NHL hockey arenas in the United States

Suburban arenas and the spanning of space

Urban revitalization and the spectacle of place

Mediated experience and the “fansumer”

The corporate-entertainment complex and the city

Conclusion: the disappearance of the hockey arena.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Online resource; title from PDF title page (ACLS Humanities Ebook, viewed December 24, 2025).

Other Format:

Print version: Shubert, Howard. Architecture on ice

OCLC:

1412395883

Access Restriction:

Restricted for use by site license