North Buffalo Ice Rink

Modernizing a community recreation center in North Buffalo

Located on Tacoma Avenue, the North Buffalo Ice Rink (formerly known as Lafayette Ice Rink) is an important community asset that is frequently used by neighborhood residents, local schools, and athletic organizations for hockey and skating. The ice rink is a major recreational resource for Buffalo’s youth hockey. It is also very popular for other forms of skating, including open skates. The North Buffalo Ice Rink originally opened in 1990 as the third public ice rink in the city.

In a continuing effort to ensure the vitality of this community asset, the City has invested $3.4 million in the facility since 2006. As part of that ongoing investment, the City made substantial functional upgrades to the interior, as well as an expansion of the facility’s parking lot. The City partnered with Buffalo Sewer to utilize porous pavement in the parking expansion. The facility’s porous parking area enables rain and snowmelt to seep directly into the ground rather than spreading across the parking lot and draining into the sewer system. With the capacity to absorb over 112,000 gallons of runoff in a typical rainfall event, these improvements ensure that the North Buffalo Ice Rink remains a high-quality facility for active recreation while limiting its environmental impact.