About Facility
"There are too many one-hour players. They're waiting for one hour of indoor ice when they could use the natural ice God has given them for five or six hours"
John Mariucci- Distinguished Minnesota Gopher Player and Coach
Scope of Work
3M Arena at Mariucci was constructed from 1991 to 1993 and opened in August 1993. The ice system (refrigeration system and ice rink floor) is original with the building construction. The 33-year-old direct type R-22 refrigeration system has served the facility well but is well beyond is expected and safe life. Ridder Arena opened in 2002 and has the similar direct R-22 based ice system. Together the two systems have over 17,000 pounds of R-22 refrigerant in the two systems. In addition to the large quantity of refrigerant, R-22 has been phased out of production due to its high global warming potential and costs have significantly increased over the last 10 years.
The University’s main goals were to replace the aging ice systems and provide more reliable ice systems, to reduce the overall carbon footprint of the facility by substantially reducing the amount of refrigerant that is used in the system, to increase the sustainability of ice system by changing to ammonia which is a natural refrigerant, to maximize the energy efficiency of the system by changing from two separate refrigeration systems to one central refrigeration system, and to reduce the size of he ice rink floor, ice sheet, in Mariucci Arena.
B32 Engineering Group started assisting the University in planning for the replacement of the ice systems starting with the initial study in 2014. Several other updates to the study followed over the years which included a larger renovation project. The studies provided a solid planning document and foundation for the renovation project that took place from 2023-2024. B32 guided the planning, design and provided construction administration services to help assure the project very successfully in the end.