Article by Raluca Preotu


Overview

The Fleet Skating Center is located near the City Hall in downtown Providence. It stands in Kennedy Plaza, on a site that was formerly the Cove Basin of Providence. From the time that the basin was filled in the 1890s until a century later, when the skating rink was built, this area of Providence turned increasingly into a transit hub. With the "renaissance" of the 1980s and 1990s, this took new forms, as more civic and business activity was concentrated downtown. Behind this renaissance, as well as behind the skating rink, stands the architectural team William D. Warner Architects and Planners.

The facility is an outdoor skating rink with a total surface of 13,875 feet. The entrance is in Kennedy Plaza, through a pavilion sporting two towers -- a reference to those of the 1848 Union Passenger Depot which graced this downtown plaza until 1896 -- and decked in brick veneer. According to the website of the construction company, the skating area has a "36-inch structural concrete foundation" and "4-inch thick slab encasing refrigerant tubing."

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