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This summer, outside of the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the museum’s famous forecourt area will be the site of a timely skatepark activation by local artist Raphaël Zarka. His new Cycloïde Piazza installation is meant to connect young Parisian skate enthusiasts and forms a key part of the... View full entry
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.
— The New York Times
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... View full entry
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. — St. Louis Post-Dispatch
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... View full entry
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. — The Real Deal
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... View full entry
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. — CNBC
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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. — The Guardian
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry