Playground Guide - 2016 - 15

Skatepark at Encinitas
Community Park,
Encinitas, California.

tive space now, " says Clark Allen, city of Poplar Bluff Parks
and Recreation director.
A Concrete Solution
One of the challenges of the Poplar Bluff site was remediating an old underground fuel storage tank - a common
obstacle in urban land reuse. Skateparks are a great solution
for reuse as their base is typically concrete, which can double
as a cap for contaminated soils. That's exactly what they did
at the Poplar Bluff site and at another skatepark in Boston.
Boston's skateboarding community had long been without a
real skatepark. In the late 1990s, famed sculptor Nancy Schön
began advocating for a public skatepark after confronting the
skateboarders that routinely skated over her " Tortoise and
Hare " sculpture in Copley Square. The Charles River Conservancy, a nonprofit organization that enhances urban parklands along the Charles River, took up the cause and spent a
decade raising money and public support for a skatepark.
The site selected was an empty, contaminated lot beneath
the highway access ramps of the iconic Leonard P. Zakim
Bunker Hill Memorial Bridge. With a new pedestrian park
on one side and a commuter rail yard and gravel plant on
the other, the location was the perfect middle ground between the contrasts of recreation and creativity, and the
industrial-tinged edge of the skateboarding culture. The environmental clean-up of the site included site excavation,
installing a liner to restrict any contamination, and capping
the site with concrete (dually functioning as the base of the
skatepark). It was a win-win.
More than 2,000 skateboarders, BMX riders and spectators
attended the November 2015 opening for the long-awaited
skatepark, which has since become a destination for skaters
across the Northeast. At the park's opening, Massachusetts
native and professional skateboarder Andy MacDonald
commented, " I know people who have been skating in Boston since the mid-1970s, waiting 30-plus years for a place
that kids can come skate in a safe, fun, positive environment,
and that's what the Lynch Family Skatepark is all about. "
Is a Skatepark the Solution?
Following are some tips to consider if your community is
contemplating adding a public skatepark to its portfolio:
Involve the community, particularly the skateboarding community, through public meetings, design charettes, etc. A skatepark won't be accepted by skaters if it
doesn't match their needs. Partner with local skate shops
and use social media to help spread the word. If they are
included, they'll take pride in ownership and help maintain the park.

Get creative with funding. Because skateparks are still a
relatively specialized type of project, few grant programs
exist for them, meaning higher competition for funds. Poplar Bluff is the first-ever skatepark funded by the Missouri
Foundation for Health, based on its use in fostering community health. And, because skateparks are such a good fit for
brownfield redevelopment, also consider programs that fund
environmental restoration and adaptive reuse.
Stay local. Avoid going with a cookie-cutter design that
could be inserted in any community in the country. What
makes skateparks a natural addition to the landscape is their
authentic, context-appropriate design. Provide skate features
that mimic local skaters' favorite spots, and use contextually
appropriate colors and treatments.
Hire wisely. Particularly for brownfield projects, consider hiring a design team with ample experience on these
kinds of sites. Brownfield remediation typically involves permitting with multiple agencies, so having experience with
that process - coupled with specific expertise in skatepark
design - will help things run smoothly.
With the number of young people involved in skateboarding continuing to grow, skateparks are often a useful investment for a community. But, when they double as an adaptive
reuse solution, they become a problem-solving asset the entire community can enjoy.
[Ed. Note: Together, Mike McIntyre and Kanten Russell have designed more than 200 action sport projects across the country.]

Mike McIntyre is the principal of the Action Sports Group at Stantec
(mike.mcintyre@stantec.com). Kanten Russell, a former professional
skateboarder, is the designer for the Action Sports Group at Stantec
(kanten.russell@stantec.com).

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Parks & Recreation

Playground Guide - 2016

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Playground Guide - 2016