BROOKLYN – For Brooklynites dreaming of snow amidst the sweltering summer months, there’s something frosty to look forward to.
Two ice-skating rinks, one outdoor and one covered, will open in Prospect Park this December, according to Prospect Park spokesman Paul Nelson.
The rinks are part of the Lakeside project - a $74 million, 26-acre renovation of park space, which has been in construction since December 2009. The new chilly centers, first reported by The Brooklyn Paper, will offer 30,000 square-feet worth of ice and have adjacent buildings with a café, locker rooms and an overhead space for viewing the skaters.
The Parks Department and the project’s architects, Williams, FAIA, and Tsien, were especially concerned with making the rinks as energy-efficient as possible, Nelson said.
The open-air roof that will cover one of the rinks and the roofs of the surrounding buildings will be covered in grass. The machines used to create and preserve the ice will also be energy efficient.
The rinks will be open year-round, unlike Prospect Park’s old Wollman Rink, which the new rinks are replacing. In the warmer months, one will be used for roller-skating and the other as a water playground.
“The equipment is all in and we’re planting on the roof," said Nelson. "We just need to put in the ice.”