In 1980, local realtor Roger Voisinet published an article in the Daily Progress about his decision to live on the Downtown Mall (not something too many people considered back then) and his hopes for the urban experiment. So, did it become what he imagined it would?

“Yes, the Mall did become what I imagined and in someways better: who would have guessed that Lee Danielson would call me and say he want to build an ice rink on the Mall,” says Voisinet, who also helped bring the UVA men’s hockey club to the arena, adding that Danielson’s first idea was for it to have no roof. “I spent decades looking for a place to build an ice arena and it turned out to be right in front of me all the time.”

“There is much to say for the wisdom of naïveté,” says Voisinet. “…no one would have ever thought of that parking lot for an ice rink, but someone coming from outside the industry…..same with Mark Brown decades later saving the Ice Park even though he knew nothing about ice or hockey.”

Development History Living Opinion People