Archinect - News

Brooklyn group opposes new Tony Hawk-backed skatepark: 'Pouring concrete is Stone Age'

2024-04-08T11:58:00-04:00

The city has construction plans for Mount Prospect Park, once the site of a lookout station for George Washington’s army. About 40,000 square feet of the 7.79-acre park are to be turned into one of the largest skateboarding spots on the East Coast. Some nearby residents are fighting the plan. [...] They say the poured-concrete skateboarding facility would take up precious green space in a city that does not have enough of it.

A total of four skatepark designs are scheduled to be built in the Bronx and Brooklyn, courtesy of The Skatepark Project (or TSP). Costs for a new park at the contested Brooklyn location are about $100,000.

The Mount Prospect Park location calls for 40,000 square feet worth of concrete to be poured, leading to local protests recently. Hayley Gorenberg of the group Friends of Mount Prospect Park told the Times, “Paving green space isn’t acceptable to the community, and it’s not the way for New York City to look forward to a more resilient future. It’s backwards thinking.”

Tony Hawk is also involved in Peterson Rich Office and OSD’s new adaptive reuse design for the Shepherd Gallery and Art Center in Detroit.

Skate park within former church burns down in St. Louis

2023-07-04T10:00:00-04:00

A four-alarm fire late Wednesday engulfed a towering historic church that had been converted into an indoor skatepark north of downtown St. Louis. No injuries were reported in the blaze at S, near Hogan and North Market streets. The cause of the fire remained under investigation as of 3:30 p.m. Thursday.

The fire is believed to have started in the church rectory before it spread to where the skatepark is. The German Gothic church at the St. Liborius Parish Complex in the city’s St. Louis Place neighborhood was originally constructed in 1889. The building was declared a city landmark in 1975 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 before it closed in 1992. The current owner of the church, Dave Blum, purchased it in 2012, which was followed by its renovation into a skate park named Sk8 Liborius in 2016.

Video courtesy SK8 Liborius/YouTube

The former church had become a sanctuary for St. Louis’ skater community as one of the few dedicated skating locations in the city. Skate ramps, notably a 40-foot miniature ramp in the center, graffiti, and murals replaced what were once pews.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sk8 Liborius / The LUAS 501c3 (@sk8liborius)

It remains unclear what the cause of the blaze was. Blum is working with fir...

Los Angeles to convert vacant courthouse into affordable housing

2022-10-27T13:16:00-04:00

A long-closed Los Angeles County courthouse in Sawtelle that was once a popular draw for skateboarders may soon be redeveloped for affordable housing. The County Board of Supervisors voted to buy the former West Los Angeles Courthouse at 1633 Purdue Avenue for a mixed-use, affordable housing development, City News Service reported via KFI AM 640.

As detailed by The Real Deal, a motion to buy the courthouse, which has been vacant since June 2013, was proposed, asking Los Angeles County to source funds to acquire the space from the Judicial Council. The County has reportedly, so far, paid more than $3.5 million to the Council to incentivize development.

Doubling as a popular skate venue since the 1990s, the courthouse site became a legal location for skating following its 2013 closure, in which it’s been dubbed the West LA Courthouse Skate Plaza. Los Angeles County has chosen Arlington, Virginia-based West LA Commons as the prospective developer. The current terms of the project call for the developer to pay the County $32.3 million. The County Board of Supervisors will meet to discuss the project again on November 15th, when the public will have the opportunity to comment on the project.

Tony Hawk enters the metaverse with 'largest virtual skatepark ever made'

2022-07-19T19:13:00-04:00

After conquering the X Games and video games, Tony Hawk has set his sights on his next frontier: the metaverse. The legendary skateboarder this week announced plans to partner up with The Sandbox — an online game built on the ethereum blockchain where players can spend cryptocurrency to buy virtual land — to build the “largest virtual skatepark ever made,” the company said in a Wednesday press release.

Called Tony Hawk LAND, the virtual space is being developed through a partnership between Tony Hawk Inc. and The Sandbox. NFT production company Autograph will design purchasable avatars based on Hawk, along with his most iconic skateboards, equipment, and apparel, including a digital replica of the skateboard he used at the X Games in 1999.

Screenshot of the ramp-building feature. Putting those CAD skills to good use!

“I have been a fan of new technology all of my life — from the first videogames and home computers with CGI capabilities — so I am fascinated by the metaverse, and excited to bring our culture into the virtual landscape of The Sandbox,” skateboarding pioneer and entrepreneur Tony Hawk said in a statement.

Other recent metaverse creations and proposals that made the Archinect news included a virtual version of Liberland by Zaha Hadid Architects, BIG's virtual HQ for Vice, Grimshaw-designed blockchain spaces for pax.world, and this NFT of the Tower of Babel by Dewan.

Pr...

Hollaway’s F51, the first multi-story skatepark, looks to build positive support for the local youth culture

2022-03-08T18:38:00-05:00

The homegrown regeneration of a once-neglected industrial area on the edge of Kent, England is underway after Hollaway Studio revealed plans for a dynamic new “layered” public skatepark called F51.

Billed as a full-tilt “adrenaline building,” the three-story structure includes a boxing gym and rock climbing wall in addition to the skateparks and was commissioned by the local Roger De Haan Charitable Trust to provide area youths with the “freedom and the opportunity to push both physical and mental boundaries within a safe space away from screens.”

Flow Floor. Image courtesy Matt Rowe © F51

Located in the heart of the seaside community’s Creative Quarter, Hollaway’s collaboration with renowned skatepark designers Maverick will replace an existing facility with a new tiered experience that allows users to utilize the space in a top-down way that increases in intensity as their skills and abilities build.

Bowl Floor. Image courtesy Matt Rowe © ...

Populous-designed 'Ice Ribbon' for the 2022 Winter Olympics takes center stage in Beijing

2022-02-03T13:08:00-05:00

The eyes of the world will soon turn to the new Populous-designed National Speed Skating Oval as the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics prepare to kick off in Beijing.

As the only new permanent venue at this year’s games, the 'Ice Ribbon' takes its place in line with the National Aquatics Center and Ai Weiwei and Herzog & de Meuron-designed Bird’s Nest on a central corridor called the Olympic Green. The design is meant to symbolize speed and dynamism associated with the sport of speed skating.

Image courtesy Populous

The 12,000-seat venue will host the speed skating events and later be transformed into the long-term home for China’s newIce and Snow Sports Development Plan, which aims to get an impressive 300 million people involved in winter sports by the year 2025.

Image courtesy Populous

“Much of the inspiration for the conceptual design of the ‘Ice Ribbon’ came from a traditional ice game played in old Beijing which involved a high-speed spinning ice top,” explains Populous Ch...

Alexis Sablone: an MIT architecture graduate with hope for Olympic gold

2021-07-26T15:10:00-04:00

Alexis Sablone is bringing her knowledge of architecture to the Olympics, though not in the way you might expect from a professional artist with degrees in the subject from MIT and Columbia.

The 34-year-old Connecticut native represents the US during this year’s delayed Tokyo Olympic Games, joining the inaugural skateboarding team on their quest for gold.

Sablone, who has been skating since she was 10, is able to compete this year because of a rule that allows Olympic hosts to add different “demonstration” sports to the games every year. The three-time X Games gold medalist has dominated the professional skateboarding circuit since her debut in 2002, earning sponsorships from Converse and wheelmaker Dial Tone along the way.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Alexis Sablone (@suminaynay)

The goofy-footed skater finished her Master’s at MIT in 2016 after using earnings that she made on the pro skate tour to continue her study of the discipline begun while...

Skaters in London are trying to restore the Southbank Centre, a popular skating site

2017-08-08T13:37:00-04:00

The point is, skaters made that area safe; in the old days it was cardboard city. That is what skating does: it fills the cracks in society left by capitalist development … that is where skating exists. It’s like a fungus, it’s like moss, it just grows in the corners where no one else wants to be.

Back in 2004, two-thirds of a popular skateboarding site at the Southbank Centre in London was destroyed. In 2014, the final third of the site was on its way to closure when the property management changed hands. Seeing the turnover as an opportunity, a campaign—Long Live Southbank—began that proposed the reconstruction of the original site in its entirety. The effort has largely been successful; the Southbank Centre has agreed and the plans have been approved by the city.

It may not be so surprising that the Centre might re-welcome skaters as the Guardian explains, "the idea that skateboarders are the “shock troops of gentrification” has been well documented." Skateboarders are often willing to congregate in areas that others do not want to and in this way, can act as a neighborhood watch that in time, allows others to feel safe in the space as well. Now, the only thing standing in the campaign's way is raising the funds necessary—around £790,000—for restoration.

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The New Museum launches new skateboard shaped as the SANAA-designed museum building

2014-07-30T19:03:00-04:00

As a nod to skate culture innovation, the New Museum in New York collaborated with U.S. skateboard manufacturer Chapman Skateboards to create a limited-edition skate deck shaped as the iconic staggered-block building that was designed by Japanese firm SANAA.

Inspired by a New Museum Store window installation by Canyon Castator and Richard Duff from 2012, the Chapman x New Museum skateboard is handcrafted from Canadian Hardrock Maple wood featuring a high-gloss paint mix. Only 150 of the skateboards were produced. Retailed at $125, they're available for purchase at the New Museum store or online.

Check out the video below to see the board in action.

See more skate-related posts here.

Skate this: Limited edition Rem Koolhaas Flag Deck

2013-12-09T14:35:00-05:00

While collaborations between architects and skaters aren't too rare, the symbiosis typically happens in the realm of ramp/rail/ledge/obstacle design. To have an architectural heavyweight like Rem Koolhaas come out and give his blessings to a skateboard deck design, which pays homage to OMA's Museum Park in Rotterdam, is a rather seldom event.

Here's the complete story we've received from NL-based skateboarding brand Dufarge:

"The Dutch designers from surf inspired skatebrand Dufarge produced a skateboard deck that honours their favourite local skate spot. Part of OMA's Museum Park-scheme in Rotterdam, the spot, also known as 'Rem's Flag', features a 150 meter stretch of brightly coloured stripes: a collossal version of OMA's 'EU Barcode'."

"The EU Barcode was designed in 2001 by the OMA think tank AMO to represent the European Union as "the common effort of different nations, with each state retaining its own cultural identity while sharing the advantages of acting tog...

Not Your Mama's (Skateboard) House

2011-07-12T18:03:00-04:00

Remember your mama always telling you not to skateboard inside the house? Well, think again, mom: Francois Perrin of LA-based Air Architecture has shared with us some pretty impressive photos of his latest production, PAS House, a full-scale, 753.5-square foot prototype for a house he is currently designing in Malibu, CA for former pro skateboarder and founder of Etnies footwear, Pierre-André Senizergues (PAS).

The prototype, fully equipped with sofa, bed, furniture from the Skate Study House collection and even kitchen appliances, was just recently part of the exhibition Public Domaine/Skateboard Culture at la Gaite Lyrique, a new museum in Paris. For the 25th birthday celebration of Etnies, their team of pro skaters did a demo session in the prototype.

The complete residence, where everything in the house is skateable, will measure 2,200-square feet and will to be located in a site overlooking the Pacific at the top of Malibu.

The concept was envisioned by Senizerguesa...