PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANK D. YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY 3CDC
The skating rink and humongous Christmas tree on Fountain Square might feel like a multi-generational holiday tradition for many of us, but the downtown favorites aren’t even 20 years old. The seasonal rink followed 3CDC’s renovation of the square and its underground parking garage in 2006, adding activity downtown during winter months.
PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANK D. YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHY, COURTESY 3CDC
Andi Schultes, 3CDC’s director of event logistics, is starting her 12th season in charge of the rink and knows more about making ice than almost anyone in town. An intricate web of plastic tubes under the ice circulates 11,000 gallons of glycol to maintain an ideal frozen surface. Schultes says she can hold decent ice up to an air temperature of 70 degrees, but a bigger challenge might be frigid temps; when it’s under 18–20 degrees, she actually has the glycol warm up the ice so it doesn’t crack.
Schultes’s crew maintains and resurfaces the ice every day, but she recommends skate aficionados visit as early in the day as possible. “Our best ice is the first two hours, no matter what time we open,” she says.
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