Leo A Daly designed City National Arena with a combination of metal building systems and structural concrete. The building is a practice facility for The Golden Knights, of the National Hockey League (NHL). Additionally, the University of Nevada Las Vegas’ hockey team uses it for practices and games, and there are spaces to watch the teams practice, retail spaces and opportunities for public skating.
The layout of City National Arena is 246 feet front to back, 375 feet long and 42 feet tall. The hockey complex’s clear-span structure houses two, NHL-regulation size (200 feet by 85 feet) hockey rinks. Between the two rinks is a hybrid section.
The metal building system covers the entire 142,000-square-foot structure. In some areas, steel columns are the full 42-foot height. In other sections, steel columns only support the second story, mounted atop a structural concrete first story. The first floor, which has locker rooms, is structural concrete with concrete masonry units. The second floor is a clear-span metal building system with retail spaces for a restaurant and bar with windows overlooking both hockey rinks. At the west end of the building, with offices, another two-floor section was built with a combination of a metal building system and structural concrete. There is also a foyer for public ice skate rental that extends from the north side of the building, and a gift shop.
Petra Construction NV LLC constructed City National Arena, which was completed in April 2017, with Star Building Systems’ metal building systems. For the roof, Petra installed MBCI’s Double-Lok standing seam roof system with R-40 insulation beneath it. An additional white vinyl scrim between the insulation and roof panels reflects heat.
Mark Deaville, owner and president at Petra, says high winds created challenging working conditions. In one incident, 80-mph wind gusts damaged the roof system before panels were installed. “It ripped sheeting and insulation off, and threw it to the ground 40 feet down. We had to replace all of that damaged material,” he says.
For walls, Petra framed them in with light gauge steel covered in Georgia-Pacific Gypsum LLC’s DensGlass gypsum sheathing and R-20 insulation. Some sections are finished with 2-inch insulating EIFS that add R-4 thermal resistance. Various parts of the building are clad in one of three other exterior finishes. Red-brown stone tiles, and two types of metal roof panels from MBCI, were used extensively. All the cladding materials were installed over DensGlass gypsum sheathing and foam insulation. “We put foam spacers over the top of the purlins to reduce heat transfer and condensation,” Deaville says.
