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Big Mine Hockey Changing Rooms Project
Summary
The Big Mine Hockey Changing Rooms Project is a collaborative community effort between Crested Butte Nordic, West Elk Hockey Association, and the Town of Crested Butte. The existing Big Mine Warming House is a shared use space that houses the Jr. Nordic Team, all Nordic users, and all hockey players. This project will shift about half of the users out of the Warming House thereby alleviating congestion in that building, and allow for rink-level access for hockey players and additional space for Nordic participants. This project will provide four heated ADA accessible changing rooms totally 1,230 sq. ft. that will accommodate four hockey teams and 80 players. Ben White Architecture designed the changing rooms, and Black Dragon Construction built them.
Need
The existing Warming House, built in 1993, serves the winter programming for Big Mine Park including Nordic skiing, hockey, and sledding. Big Mine Park is a historic site and in situ artifacts exist in close proximity to the Warming House. The demands on the Warming House have significantly increased since its construction, and in 2010 the Town of Crested Butte completed a Parks and Recreation Regional Master Plan that states, “The Warming House/Nordic Center facilities are too small to support optimal usage for hockey teams, especially for any tournaments or multi-game events. Often hockey games or events are occurring during prime Nordic activities as well, creating even more demand for these limited facilities during peak usage times.”
In 2015 the Town completed a Big Mine Park Master Plan that makes the recommendation to, “Expand current facilities on site through development of new buildings, additions, and structures to meet the recreational programs and growing demands of the primary uses: Big Mine Ice Arena, Nordic Center, Sledding Hill, and Trailhead.” This project will do just that with the addition of four changing rooms.
Funding
The total project cost for this facility was $290,000 with $35,000 generously funded through the Gunnison County Met Rec's developed recreation grant program. $197,500 of the project funds came from Bud Light's 2014 Whatever USA ("WUSA") event. The Town of Mt. Crested Butte generously earmarked WUSA funding toward this project. The remaining $57,500 came from the Town of Crested Butte's general capital fund.
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