The Consol Energy Center is a new arena that is currently being constructed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It will become the new home for the Pittsburgh Penguins of the NHL and is set to open in the Fall of 2010. Along with hockey, the arena will also be utilized for concerts, basketball, stage shows, exhibitions and other events. The arena is considered to be “state of the art” and “going green” by the mayor of Pittsburgh.http://penguins.nhl.com/club/news.htm?bcid=419534 The Pittsburgh Penguins organization and Sports & Exhibition Authority are currently working towards LEED certification. The arena is 720,000 square feet and has the capacity to hold up to 19,758 (for center stage events). There are numerous amenities within the arena, such as a full service restaurant and five retail stores. http://penguins.nhl.com/ext/pdf/new_arena/Arena_Facts.pdf

On Tuesday, October 13th 2009, Wayne London, from Populous, predicted the arena will be finished by August 1st, 2010.

The arena was designed by Populous, which was formerly known as HOK Sport. As mentioned, the arena has the capability of holding up to 19,758 seats for center stage events. It holds 19,000 for basketball, 14,536 for end stage events and 18,087 for hockey games. The seat number for hockey games is in honor of Sidney Crosby (of the Penguins), whose player number is 87. The arena was designed with 66 suites all together (62 suites, 4 party suites), in honor of Mario Lemieux, whose number with the Penguins was 66. The new arena is planned with new technologies, such as touch screens in the suite boxes that will give visitors the ability to watch on-demand replays of the game as well as an HD jumbotron.http://penguins.nhl.com/ext/pdf/new_arena/Arena_Facts.pdf

In April 2009, the Sports & Exhibition Authority and the Pittsburgh Penguins began to work on achieving Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold Certification for the Consol Energy Arena.

The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design provides a standard for the design, construction and operation of green buildings. If the new arena receives certification, it will become the first NHL arena to be LEED Gold.