Sustainable and Skateable
The latest skatepark to open in Portland, Oregon is Ed Benedict Skate Plaza, a project that is on my radar to check out on a nice sunny day. What makes this design fabulous is that the designers challenged the typical idea of what a skate park is and should be. It incorporates some of my favorite things…useable (especially skateable) art, creative use and design of stormwater and multi-functional spaces. Quite simply, this is what a skate park should be.
The park was designed by Canadian designers Newline Skateparks, an outfit with successful parks across North America that feature a more progressive view on skateable environments. They then worked with California Skateparks for the construction. The park itself is essentially the dream plaza for a skater where every surface, rail and wall is available for grinding and no anti-skate details like metal fins or spikes can be found.
The plaza includes 16,000 square feet of skateable terrain that, instead of a large sea of concrete, incorprates trees, shrubs, bio-filtration islands and stormwater channels that snake through the plaza like a river. The designers took the idea of a sustainable skate park beyond just adding a place for water to go and incorporated it into the design theme as obstacles for the skaters. Pieces of concrete lift up and break with grasses running underneath and channels featuring bridges and walls, all skateable of course. It's both artful and useful and now the first "green" skatepark in the Pacific Northwest. Newline also worked closely with local Portland artist Dan Garland who designed several custom sculptural pieces as obstacles, diverse material combinations and stamp patterns under the concept "Tread Lightly". Here's a couple drawings of some of the art elements:
image via Skate and Annoy
"Basically, I wanted to create an installation that speaks to the interface between man and nature and point towards balance as a solution. I wanted to create something using the bold, iconic visual language that is such a part of the skate culture and give skaters something fun to skate but also pique their interest in what this giant symbol stood for. To have an element of discovery that can play out in skaters interaction with the plaza as many of them will spend so much time there." - Dan Garland
The opening of the park was a huge event and so far, the park continues to thrive. It will be interesting to see how this park ages with use. And now for some video montage goodness, here's a cool one from Portland filmer, Nigel Barros of the plaza in use as skaters show off their stuff:
I had actually started a post on this park awhile ago and it was sitting in my drafts, waiting for the time when I'd make it to the park myself so I could add some personal insight and photographs. And then I saw that Inhabit wrote up a little entry on it. So I was inspired to finish the post and will write another post once I've had the chance to visit the park personally. It's great to see the park getting noticed, circulated around and seen as a new model for what's possible when designers think outside the concrete box.
