Pro Con and Bowdoin College hold dedication of $20 million Watson Arena

Bowdoin held a dedication ceremony on January 18th for the Sidney J. Watson Arena, the college's new 68,200 s/f ice arena. The arena was filled to capacity with students, faculty, and invited guests for the special ceremony and doubleheader women's and men's hockey games; the first games to be played on the new ice.   Pro Con Inc of Manchester, N.H. was the construction manager for the $20 million project and Bear Mountain Design AC, Ltd. of Barnard, Vt. was the project architect.   The new arena features a 90x200 foot ice surface and has a seating capacity for 1,900 and standing room capacity around the concourse for an additional 600. Both the main concourse area and bowl seating provide great views of the action on the ice.  The arena has exposed steel trusses, masonry columns and wood accents throughout the facility. The arena has large locker rooms with generous space for changing, equipment storage and athletic training area, and a 360-space parking lot.   The environmentally friendly arena has very energy efficient refrigeration and de-humidification systems and utilizes recycled water. Throughout the project, Pro Con and Bowdoin maintained a strong commitment to the environment and anticipate the Watson Arena to be one of the first LEED certified collegiate hockey arena in the country.  In addition to coordination with the design team to ensure the optimum amount of LEED points were achieved, Pro Con worked with subcontractors and suppliers to ensure that as many products as possible contained a high recycled content, were manufactured or extracted regionally, and contained minimal amounts of Volatile Organic Compounds. Pro Con also ensured that all wood products utilized during construction were urea-formaldehyde free and Forest Stewardship Council Certified.   To minimize construction waste, Pro Con and Bowdoin introduced a comprehensive waste management program which resulted in the majority of construction waste being diverted from disposal.    Pro Con began site work for the project in September 2007 and the project was completed in November 2008. The Watson Arena is one of several ice arenas Pro Con has managed including a 65,000 s/f ice arena complex at St Paul's School in Concord, N.H. and a 59,000 s/f ice arena at Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass.