WHEELS ARE IN MOTION.

AFFORDABLE OPTIONS FOR SKATEPARK CONSTRUCTION

With the widespread skateboarding following, a whole new industry has sprung up to cater to the demand for skateparks.

If your community doesn't have a free public skatepark, then I know right where to find youths, brimming with stories of police harassment and complaining about how the best spots have been shut down, poised against business owners who are tired of kids bombing down sidewalks, riding in the street and tearing up the stairs, benches, and planters. The sport of skateboarding is no longer indicative of a bunch of at-risk youth participating in a delinquent activity. With increased popularity has come the realization that skateboarders are talented athletes participating in their sport of choice, and municipalities acknowledge that creating safe places for skateboarders to practice is the best response to the sport's growing number of participants. In fact, your city may be considering a skatepark right now.

With the widespread skateboarding following, a whole new industry has sprung up to cater to the demand for skateparks. Many of these companies are motivated by a true belief in the public skatepark cause. Sadly, others are simply out for the quick buck, and when the market shifts, so will they. But don't let that worry you, I have good news. You don't need to hire a professional designer or search for an elite construction team in order to have a permanent high-quality skatepark. It is possible for your community to do the entire job yourself, do it correctly, and save thousands of dollars in the process. How do I know? Because my community did just that.

I own a sculpture studio that specializes in stone and cast bronze elements for public and private venues. About 18 months ago, I got involved in a skatepark project after the city government proposed building a free public skatepark within a municipal park just a few blocks front my home. When I first volunteered to help the youth with design and fund-raising, I didn't expect that I would also build the skatepark. But that's exactly what happened. After receiving sky-high estimates for designs from landscape architects halfway across the country and several months of having my e-mails and phone calls ignored by professional skatepark builders, our skatepark committee realized that if our community was going to have a skatepark anytime soon, we would have to do it ourselves.

My studio proposed a design for the skatepark using a community-based design philosophy developed to assist in the conceptualization of public artworks. This approach to design placed emphasis and value on the contribution of community members and potential users of any project. In addition to information gleaned from facilitated meetings and personal interviews, we relied heavily on surveying and hands-on modeling. In short, we proposed to let the youth of the community design their own facility.

Many existing businesses that specialize in skatepark design will tell you that your city cannot hope for a quality park without the services of a professional designer or landscape architect. Certainly their services have value, but communities don't need to hire a professional skatepark designer to achieve a quality design. The truth is that hiring individuals who don't reside in your community or who do not talk to the potential users of the park may actually result in a skatepark design that doesn't meet your needs. Even worse, you could be left with a very expensive design that no one has any idea how to build, resulting in wasted fund-raising dollars and yielding less satisfaction among your community's youth.

The best concept designers are your community's young skateboarders, inline skaters, and freestyle BMX bike riders. These kids have some of the freshest and most innovative ideas around. The users' interests will be best served by using an organized group of local youth to design the skatepark. And in addition to getting a great design, they will get a sense of ownership of the skatepark, which means they will be more likely to self-police the skatepark in order to curtail problems. The result will be tailor-made for your community and will reflect its interests and ideas; but even more than that, it provides young people with an opportunity for empowerment that comes from knowing what they want, setting goals, and working to achieve them. The positive political aspects of such a community-based project are significant as well.

You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by trying this method. However, regardless of the skaters' experience, it takes more than one or two individuals to design a world-class skatepark. The community-based design process relies on a group whose decisions are facilitated by someone who has a genuine desire to help the group realize their collective vision.

There is usually one good artist in every community, and a local artist is a vital member of the design team. Locate an artist who is willing to work with the youth by placing an advertisement in the local newspaper or asking for support during a city council meeting. Pretty soon someone will volunteer. (This volunteer doesn't need a degree in architecture or to know how to skate, but he or she should be capable of drawing simple design plans.) Make it clear that the artist is there to help facilitate the design of a skatepark only in cooperation with your youth design committee, who should always have an equal vote and whose input should always be valued and respected.

The facilitator of the design process should plan a design meeting with the youth committee to start on the design concept and should bring clay to this meeting. Divide the clay between committee members and ask them to make obstacles that they would like to see in the park or to replicate their favorite places to skate around town. Once they conceptualize these obstacles, they can begin to place them together and move them around until they find a design that begins to flow. Throughout the meeting, the design facilitator should take notes on the relative size of the proposed obstacles, which are unlikely to be to scale. Nothing is set in stone during that first session, because there needs to be ample time for reflection and critical evaluation. Give the initial ideas a chance to sink in a bit. Often there is a need to set things aside for a while to realize that another idea may be better or worse. At the end of the meeting, the clay obstacles should be saved and quickly sketched so that it can be photocopied and given to all members before leaving.

Before you hold your next meeting, a more formal drawing of the skatepark design (to scale) should be rendered and the meeting should be opened to suggestions for modifications and additions. A lot of changes will be suggested. Each change should be voted on, and the drawing, modified. After three or four meetings some consensus of opinion should start to emerge and the issues will begin to center around details. Avoid the temptation to treat these details as minor and move along. If details are holding things up, that is a sure indication that something is not right in that area of the design. Although this process may seem tedious and unnecessary, stick with it because there will come a point when everyone agrees that the design is done and that they have designed a really great park. The youth involved will feel that the skatepark design reflects the interest and skill level of the skate community and deserves to be built.

I do need to include a few words of warning about adult (non-skater) contributions to design or construction. There may come a point during design or construction when someone will attempt to push through an aspect of design or continue construction on something that is too difficult to skate or is being constructed incorrectly. The skaters will know this and will probably be vocal in their opposition. However, some may desire to keep the design without further review to save the time or aggravation of going back to the drawing board. The justification usually goes something like, "Ah, just go ahead it will make it more challenging for them."

Let's set the record straight. Just because something is more difficult does not make it more desirable to skaters. Making (or leaving) something steeper or bumpier when skaters are claiming it is not the right thing to do is irresponsible at best. If a group of skateboarders, inline skaters, or BMX bikers say that a portion of the design will not work, they are probably right. More than anyone else, they realize that it only requires a few more degrees to an angle, a sharper transitional radius, or a slightly imperfect surface to turn a park from fun to dangerous.

I'm familiar with one skatepark where during the construction process, the youth kept telling the contractor that the obstacles were being built too big and too steep. Instead of listening, the contractor fenced off the area and continued to build the park in spite of protests from the youth, continually claiming that the kids didn't know what they were talking about and that the park would simply be more challenging. Well, the park is built and sits there practically empty most of the time, as there are never more than a handful of skaters around who are capable of using the facility. The young people in town still skate, but they continue to do so on the street. The city feels as if they've wasted their money and the young people appear ungrateful.

So once you have mobilized the skating community and have a great design, what do you do about construction? Concrete provides an attractive, smooth, and easily maintained surface. Concrete skateparks are also safer than parks constructed of other materials. Most municipalities that opt for wood or metal construction do so because the ramps and obstacles are less expensive in the short term and are much less permanent. But if you can afford it, a concrete facility more than pays for itself in the long run.

At first glance, concrete skatepark construction seems to be shrouded in mystery. First, you have the youth talking about transitions, coping, the need for perfection, and how this skatepark is great while that one isn't worth the time. (Worse, to the non-skater, they both look alike!) Couple that with the likelihood that no concrete contractor in your area has any skatepark building experience and you may end up believing anything less than the assistance of dedicated team of skatepark builders and a voodoo witch doctor leaves you doomed to failure.

In our case, our committee went about trying to hire a contractor in the standard fashion, sending out RFPs, advertising in the Business Journal, and relying on word of mouth. What no one had anticipated was the lack of local contractors who would be interested and willing to build our skatepark. In fact, during the bidding process in December 1998, several concrete contractors told us what was being proposed was nearly impossible. When a statewide search for a concrete contractor proved fruitless, it looked like the project might be scrapped. About that time, my sculpture studio was asked if we would consider building the park. We accepted.

We approached the building of the skatepark in a fashion similar to the fabrication of public art and other works of sculpture. What we had, in essence, was a design for a large (10,000 square foot) concrete object with very precise specifications. So, like any other project, we began by breaking the design down into a series of issues and then developing methodology to resolve those issues. We evaluated current methods of skatepark construction and standard methods of building concrete structures and combined these existing methods with new techniques that led to a complete system for the construction of skateparks. The result was a highly specialized system for the placement of poured concrete. Although complex, if our method is followed, even a novice do-it-your-selfer can look forward to world-class results.

So, to give any interested party the tools required, we compiled the information into a book with a companion CD-ROM full of digital photos of all phases of construction. This book will walk you through all of the steps needed to build a world-class facility--from organizing supporters and planning a campaign, to fund-raising, design, and construction. Most importantly, we detail how you can find all of the needed resources right in your own community. We hope the scale of your undertaking will not discourage you. If your community is considering a grassroots campaign to build a skatepark, this book and CD-ROM is the best resource available. Good luck!

The Complete Step-by-Step Guide to Concrete Skatepark Construction can be purchased for $65 including shipping and handling direct from the A. Gembeck Studio. You can buy online by visiting their Web site at www.skateparkguide. com and clicking the "buy the book" button. Or send check or money order to the A. Gembeck Studio P.O. Box 13149 Minneapolis, MN 55414. For a free skatepark consultation or to order a copy of the book by telephone call 612/706-6127.