Wed 1 Mar 2006
Leveraging the input provided by Lakeway skaters at an input meeting, Grindline has created a design for the skatepark they’ll start building there within the next month.
Word on the internet is that Corpus, Galveston, San Marcos, and Houston will also be on Grindline’s 2006 agenda.
Sandy Carson sent me a note about a photo show opening at Bolm Studios this weekend-
The ’screaming 400′photo show opens this weekend at Bolm Studios in East
Austin featuring some of your friends. The show goes on from 7-11pm. Bring a
friend and browse our prints and drink from the kegger.
March 1st, 2006 at 9:40 am
That design is very questionable. Why so many stairs? Why is the step-up leading directly to a drop off? Whats with the wierd manual pad set in a corner? Why so much open space without flatbars or manual pads or ledges? How is the park supposed to flow with all the run-ups crossing each other? It seems to me that grindline is trying to hard to be abstract and different, taking away from the skateability of the park itself. I sure hope they consider revising that design before they start construction on a park that could be much better than this mess.
March 2nd, 2006 at 2:37 am
it should have an old fashion pyrimid. i can’t wait to see the parks in san marcos, corpus christi, and houston!
March 2nd, 2006 at 3:32 am
as we saw with mable davis, this is just the preliminary design. im actually a little happy with the overall design. its pretty close to what i handed to grindline. except like sean pointed out, there are a whole lot more stairs in this design. keep in mind, this space is only going to be about 7500 to 8000 square feet and the age group that will be skating this most is from 8 – 16. its a good start. lakeway got this put on their budget in less than 3 months. thats the fastest ive ever seen a city make something like this happen. the city is talking about possible expansion depending on how things go once its finished. ill keep everyone posted (with pictures) once ground is broken.
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:02 am
ist the bowl supposed to be 2′ and 5′ deep?
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:34 am
better design than md at least. don’t really see anything “abstract” about it.
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:59 am
yeah. right now the bowl is set to be 2′ to 5′. im hoping they change it to 4′ to 6′. the problem is, that close to the lake, you get about 12″ down and you hit bedrock and limestone. so thats part of the limitations with that. either blast it out or build partially above ground and bring in extra dirt to build up rest of the park elevation.
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:14 am
The bowl is currently 7 and 12 those are feet below grade, but the bowl is elevated.
The manual pad in the corner is actually a platform and ramp like Mabel Davis that allows you to get speed because the deck is a little short. At Mabel Davis that little trick allowed us to build more obstacles rather than use the concrete on a really long run up.
I think this is an incredible design that with some tweaking will be excellent. It forms the same kind of community oriented skatepark as mabel davis allowing all ages and ability to use the park with minimal traffic flow issues.
I know I am going to get hammered for saying that about Mabel Davis, but there is not a 15,000 sq ft park in the country that handles so many skaters so efficiently with so view collisions and such short waits to hit something. And at the same time when traffic reduces it gets more interesting.
In terms of lines and use this thing is awesome IMHO.
– lates
– jrawk
March 2nd, 2006 at 5:17 am
Oh you were talking about the other corner, duh… don’t know what that is… but I bet you could put a drum set on it.
March 2nd, 2006 at 6:43 am
The way you read those elevation numbers is to consider 0 ground level. The -2 in the shallow means it’s 2′ below ground level. The +7 on the bowl platform means the coping is 7′ above ground level and 9′ above the bottom of the shallow. The deep end is 5′ below ground level, which makes it 12′ below the coping level. I’m guessing these numbers are typos. At a minimum, you’re gonna get a bunch of little kids trapped in there that can’t climb out. I guess that could help with crowding in the street area, though.
Donylle said the skaters at the meeting where this was revealed wanted higher sets of stairs. I think the challenge is that this sits on limestone and to build taller stair sets, they’d have to dig a hole into the limestone for the lower flat.
Seth
March 2nd, 2006 at 8:19 am
I really don’t think that a bowl that deep is needed or even wanted in that area. Kids don’t want a 7-12″ bowl they want something smaller so you can do tricks on the coping.
March 2nd, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Skaterpunk,
What did they tell you when you said that at the meeting?
March 3rd, 2006 at 2:25 am
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/03/2skatepark.html
this article was in the statesman today.
March 3rd, 2006 at 6:46 am
The bowl in the Lakeway park plan is 5′ and 9′ according to Matt from GL.
March 3rd, 2006 at 8:20 am
The major flaw at Mabel Davis is that the street course is too close to the bowl. The Lakeway design is about to repeat that same major flaw. If the street course and bowl must be next to each other put a fence between them…please.
Ba Chomp!
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:37 am
I kinda like it, it makes skating the bowl even more extreme, you might fall and break something or a board flying from the street course (which actually happens a lot) could break a few teeth and fracture your skull. gnarly
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:45 am
Arrowsmith–
Look closer at the elevational design. The platform for the bowl is at least 4 feet above the surface of the highest part of the street course.
Seth
March 3rd, 2006 at 10:53 am
No matter what they build the “street” skaters will hate it. They will make 3 or 4 tricks per day and throw temper tantrums when they don’t.
On the other hand the “bowl” skaters will look over to the “street” area and say things like “I just don’t understand how they would rather skate that crap when they can be skating this” (the bowl).
Either way you look at it it’s a lose, lose situation.
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:15 pm
Seth,
My bad…I hope the elevation prevents the danger.
We will see.
March 4th, 2006 at 5:01 am
“They will make 3 or 4 tricks per day and throw temper tantrums when they don’t.” I guess you have never seen Cody McEntire skate.