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Skateparks have two significant fees required for construction. The first is the design. Design is much more than the character of the terrain. It includes the construction schematics that define every square inch of the skatepark as well as the specifications that define what and how the specific materials are used.
The second fee is for construction. This cost buys the materials, employs the professionals, and leases whatever equipment might be required.
No rough estimate is going to be accurate to all locations and seasons. In the continental United States, concrete skateparks featuring street elements tend to cost about $25 per square foot for construction, while skateparks featuring lots of transition tend to be about $35 a square foot. When it comes to establishing a realistic cost estimate based
on the size of the skatepark’s intended footprint, advocates should ask communities nearby what they paid for their parks. Determine the actual square footage of those parks, and divide that number by the total cost. This is certainly the most accurate way to establish a reasonable estimate of the cost per square foot.
Design fees generally come in at about a third of the total construction estimate, so a $600,000 skatepark may cost about $200,000 to design, bringing the total up to $800,000. This estimate is impacted by a several factors. If the surrounding park, for example, is being developed simultaneously to the skatepark, design fees may be reduced as expensive environmental impact studies can be spread over the whole site rather than associated specifically to the skatepark. The scope of work can also impact construction fees in the same way. The cost to lease heavy earth-moving equipment may be shared by the skatepark-construction company and the firms responsible for landscaping other areas of the space.
If a general contractor or landscape architect is going to subcontract the skatepark design to one company and subcontract the construction to another, this may impact the overall cost. Similarly, if a design-build skatepark specialist is hired to perform both design and construction, this too may have some effect on the overall cost. Having one entity performing “adjacent” stages of the skatepark development reduces the need for technical communication. Conversely, the more detached two entities are in terms of expertise, the greater the amount of technical communication required.
Though creating an initial cost estimate for design and construction is challenging, a reasonable place to start is $40 per square foot, or $30 per square foot for construction and $10 per square foot for design.
“Can’t we just design it ourselves?”
Skatepark design is much more than a visual description of the terrain. The final skatepark design specifies every construction detail of the skatepark. Concrete density and thickness, grade of rebar, and smoothness of finish are all covered in the final design and enough information should be included to enforce changes if kinks or other critical errors emerge during construction. In cases where the construction is being bid by companies other than the design, (that is, any non-design/build arrangement), the construction company will use the design to create an accurate cost proposal for the project.
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