Community-wide Skatepark Systems |
|
Thursday, 20 September 2007 |
Most elected officials and park planners who observe and understand the terrain needs of local skateboarders also understand that for most towns larger than 40,000 citizens, one skatepark is not going to be enough.
Exploring skatepark solutions at a community-wide scale requires a careful appreciation of several factors. Terrain types, sizes and scales, population density, district character, public transit and other aspects of urban life all can influence the design of citywide skatepark systems.
A skatepark system is essentially the array of skateboarding terrain available to a whole community or urban area. Skatepark systems can be designed for a downtown core or a whole metropolitan area. The principles and considerations are generally the same regardless of scale.
Your needs from a community-wide system can be determined much like your needs for an individual facility. Using the total population from an area you can easily determine the approximate number of skateboarders that require terrain. Subtract whatever sanctioned spaces are currently available and everything left is your unmet need. For most metropolitan areas this number will seem impossibly large.
Let’s say, for example, the unmet need for your metropolitan area is 100,000 square feet. While you might consider a single facility this size to be a grand monument to skateboarding, the fact is that it will not meet the needs of the local skaters. Most skateboarders are too young to drive and many may be too young to take public transit from the suburbs into downtown alone, depending on the size of your metropolitan core. These skaters might only get to enjoy this massive facility once or twice a month. The rest of the time they will skate whatever compelling terrain is available in their area.
So let’s break that 100,000 square feet up into smaller pieces and distribute it throughout the area. One good way to pattern the arrangement is by considering where the schools are located. For many city dwellers, the first place they consider when they want to enjoy an open space is the field or playground attached to a school. Skatepark distribution can be distributed much the same way.
When a rough dispersion of the total terrain is allocated, those smaller portions may then be subdivided into even smaller groups of skateparks or spots, if needed. Larger systems may require a full accoutrement of skate options, from a regional skatepark all the way down to dozens of skate spots. Smaller municipalities may only need one or two neighborhood parks and a small number of supporting spots to fully meet the needs of its skateboarding community.
Unfortunately there is no perfect formula for designing systems on a large scale. For most communities, the system design falls upon the imagination and perseverance of the local advocacy group. As their influence and capabilities grow, so too will their capacity to deliver viable solutions for this larger need.
|
