More than a year ago, construction crews started adding a new 5,000-seat arena to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center in Rapid City. It already has a large 10,000-seat arena, but lately the civic center has been booked pretty solid. But the new arena won’t just open up more event space – it’s also going to be home to the Rapid City Rush, a Central Hockey League team. Complete with skyboxes, it should be a pretty plush facility.

(As an aside, it looks like all the skyboxes for the Rush’s first season have been snapped up already, so if you were planning on tipping back in a La-Z-Boy to watch hockey at the rink this year, you might want to think about making some new best friends.)

I snapped a couple pictures of the arena’s current state of progress late this morning from Memorial Park. The overcast weather and bare trees aren’t exactly my first choice for scenery, but things will green up and give me better photo material real quick.

Another angle of the construction, this time with Memorial Lake in the foreground. The Rushmore Plaza Holiday Inn and the bandshell are off to the right. The lake isn’t cold enough to be frozen, but I still wouldn’t recommend a dip.

Unless perhaps you’re a duck. There were a few patches still frozen, I guess, and the ducks were happily riding the little icebergs around the lake. I’ll wait until summer, thanks.