PIVOTECH
PUBLIC SKATEPARK GUIDE
FOR SKATERS & OFFICIALS
FREE public skatepark guide for skaters and officials english version Š 2020 Pivotech. All rights reserved.
TABLE OF CONTENT
01
PREFACE
02
FOR SKATERS
03
FOR OFFICIALS
About Why a skatepark? How to get started?
Organize Get to know the political game Create a proposal
Assemble a working group Contact an experienced adviser Gain the important knowledge Which skatepark type to choose? Where to place it? How to set up the project? Skate, BMX, in-line and scooters - same thing, or?
5-7 5 6-7 6-7
8 - 11 9 9 9 - 11
12 - 17 13 13 13 14 15 16 17
3
.: skatepark in Stavanger, Norway
01 PREFACE
ABOUT The purpose of this guide is to give relevant information about how to successfully implement a skate park project. It is aimed for skaters, public authorities or anyone related to a potential or already existing project. Our aim is to educate and encourage you on your way. With 15+ years of creating great areas for skateboarding in Scandinavia we know that it is not great design or a good contractor alone that makes a project successful - the whole process from project initiation to its deliverables needs to be taken care of and nurtured every step of the way. In this guide we present the best practice for successful project implementation. Of course, there might be certain alterations for each separate project, but sticking to the guidelines has proven to be successful, clever and logical way of making this work. With this guide we hope to present a full process and the different roles that need to be present to get things done. We are Pivotech, a pioneering and leading company in Scandinavia for designing and planning skate parks and other skating spaces. Our mission is to deliver the best possible projects while striving for exceptional quality. We are engineers, architects and landscape architects and what we all have in common is the love for skateboarding. The guide is a non-commercial initiative to create more great places for people and skateboarders.
5
01 PREFACE
.: skatepark in Lund, Sweden
6
01 PREFACE
WHY SKATEPARK? Skatepark is much more than just a surface where skateboarders ride and perform their tricks. Skatepark is a meeting point for the city´s children, youth and adults; an activity program; a dynamo for cultural events such as festivals and film shows; a destination for many skaters going on road trips every year; a scene for great production of pictures and films, produced by the owners themselves and then distributed over the net worldwide. The skatepark is a framework for all the above-mentioned activities and events and signals a clear statement; “here things happen!� Public skatepark is adding artistic, cultural, educational and commercial value to our urban lives. It is even helping to address some of our most difficult social challenges and providing hugely disadvantaged children and youth with new skills, hope and a prospective future. Far from the narrow-minded view of skateparks as purely sport facilities, being separated from the city scape, in a skillfully designed skate park skateboarding is celebrated as something diverse, positive and undeniably welcome.
HOW TO GET STARTED? How to start with creating a skate park in your municipality depends on what role you have and what context you work in. For an unskilled individual without community support and in a municipality with limited budget for activities such as skateboarding, other steps are required than for a senior public authority in a big city where the need for a skate park is already widely established.
7
02 FOR SKATERS
“When politicians and officials feel that it is their project, one has really succeeded.”
If you are reading this guide, you clearly have an interest in establishing a skatepark in your municipality. Perhaps you have a son or a daughter who has recently been introduced to the skateboarding universe and now needs new challenges other than those in the parking lot. Or maybe you are a 45year old skater who together with the town’s skaters has been trying to persuade the municipality to build a skatepark. One thing is certain: According to our experience, a successful project for a public skatepark depends more on local policy and less on the actual needs. This does not mean fighting against the municipality and politicians. Quite the contrary, they should be included in the project by various means. When politicians and other authorities feel like it is their own project, one has really succeeded. The following actions should significantly increase the chance of carrying out a successful project i.e. - getting a skate park. They can be performed individually, to a greater or lesser extent and in a different sequence, depending on how vast your project is. 8
02 FOR SKATERS
ORGANIZE
GET TO KNOW THE POLITICS
CREATE A PROPOSAL
The basic step is to bring together all those wanting to get involved. Sometimes it is best to start up with a DIY, other times it’s better to work through political channels and with the help of authorities. Policy, statutes and paper work may not sound so appealing when all you want is to go out and skate. It is also not always necessary to establish a formal association, but in many cases, it facilitates the work significantly. For example, without association it is virtually impossible to seek financial support from public funds or companies An association is also a good way to secure the project’s progress. Without it, the work is often based on one or a pair of more experiences skaters who hold the tab high for as long as they can. When they are no longer able to do that, much of the work and knowledge disappears with them. With a union, the work is based less on individuals and more on collaboration.
It is a good idea to gain some insight into the functioning of the political system and to engage in the local political context. In general, the municipality consists of civil servants (i.e. engineers, architects, community planners, etc.) in workplaces in various departments such as Culture & Leisure and Technical management. Municipal clerks have limited freedom and are guided by political decisions taken in the municipality’s supreme body. But that does not necessarily mean you should always turn to politicians. Judging by our own experience at least, the municipal clerks are very positive, interested and cooperative when the local skate club presents a proposal for a new skate park.
Creating a proposal is the art of being interested and relevant in the general debate and getting support for it. The purpose of a proposal is to show what could have been done in a project and to make an arrangement with the people responsible for such projects. The department concerned with the subject deals with the proposal and makes a decision which is then reported to the municipal council. Not all municipalities use this method, but those who don’t tend to have similar means to process citizens’ proposals. Contact your municipality to find out how you are supposed to address the proposal. Proposal should be well-developed and should clearly argue why the municipality should invest in a public skatepark. It is certainly not enough to just write you want a skate park. Municipal clerks, politicians and the common citizens often have a picture of what a skatepark is. More often than not they think broken wooden obstacles, rust pipes and graffiti. 9
02 FOR SKATERS
.: proposal context (input&output)
On the other hand, they might think a skatepark has to be several thousand square meters in surface. Therefore it is important to explain in your proposal what exactly you are asking for. Additionally, it is good if you can answer the questions that politicians and officials undoubtedly ask themselves as soon as they hear the word skatepark; how much does it cost, where should it be, who can use it, what action is required, etc. In case you have identified a likely location, it may be an advantage to complete the proposal with a scalable design outline. Once the proposal is formulated and substantiated with facts, it is time to spread the information to as many 10
people as possible. Social media is an easy and good start, but local radio and local press weigh heavier when the question is ultimately local. Remember to contact local as well as regional journalists. The likelihood of getting recognized by journalists increases not only the more current the story is, but also how exciting it is to convey in text and image. A story about local skaters’ desire for a skate park is likely to come in the newspaper when accompanied by an image from the local event. A good trick for the journalist to want the story to start with and for them to know the more important facts is to write a well-formulated press release.
This may be either a brief summary or a more or less finished article with quotes and everything. To spend time creating a public opinion and appearing in the media is always a good idea. It goes without saying: the more support you get from the public and the media, the greater are your chances of securing political support as well. Feel free to contact us if you need help with the proposal. We can contribute anything from some advice over the phone to creating a professionally elaborated proposal with text, sketches and illustrations based on your needs and the municipalities’ prerequisites.
02 FOR SKATERS
.: skateboard organization set up
“You must show the adult world that you are prepared to take some responsibility and help develop your municipality.�
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03 FOR OFFICIALS
“Municipality needs to provide modern facilities that inspire spontaneous activity and consequently improve social life in the city. ”
Judging by the previous chapter, it may seem that users themselves should propagate the issue of a skatepark, which is not always the case. Often the idea for a local skatepark comes from an employee of department who has realized the municipality needs to provide modern facilities that inspire spontaneous activity and consequently improve the city’s social life. Whatever the motivation, the skate park is a good investment that quickly pays off. Each skatepark is a unique construction project with its own conditions and requires a greater or lesser engagement from the municipality. The workload is, of course, proportionate to the size and prerequisites of the project. Establishing a public skate park in a sensitive environment such as a city park, for example, requires different architectural considerations than a small skate park behind a school. The following actions should increase the chance of successfully finishing the project and ensuring the trust between skaters and municipality. 12
03 FOR OFFICIALS
ASSEMBLE A WORKING GROUP
CONTACT AN EXPERIENCED PROFESSIONAL ADVISER
GAIN THE IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE
The working group should at a minimum consist of representatives from the departments responsible for the fields of culture, leisure and technology and should also be associated with civil servants from the areas of architecture, landscape and civil society. The working group should be led by a municipal clerk who has had previous experience in construction projects. In addition to clerks, the workgroup should include someone to represent the local community. This person should, when possible, be an experienced skateboarder who has visited other skateparks and who can represent others’ views individually. The working group can be established when the project is still at a conceptual level and, at the latest, when the municipal council has made a decision to construct a skate park.
With a broad and experienced workgroup such as suggested on the previous page, the project has a solid foundation for a good start. However, unless the workgroup is lucky enough to be made up of a person with experience in design and execution of skate parks, it is important to find an outside expert in this field sooner or later, or at the latest when choosing a location. We strongly advise not to write the tender documents without advice – regardless of the type of contract and whether it is design or execution in question. The group’s role is to define together with the adviser what you want to achieve with the skatepark, choose what kind of skatepark meets the local needs, which location is the most appropriate and how the project will be executed.
A skatepark project is something that most municipalities’ clerks only do once. The questions can therefore be both numerous and complicated, or even worse, you do not know which questions to ask. Whoever has a future skatepark project on the desk, these are the questions you should ask first and resolve together with the experienced adviser: .: Which skatepark type to choose? .: Where to place it? .: How to set up the project? .:Skate, BMX, in-line, scooters - same thing or…?
13
03 FOR OFFICIALS
Which skatepark type to choose? The decision should firstly be based on what kind of a skate park the locals want. For skaters the type of the skatepark is extremely important. Different types are meant for different skateboarding styles and offer different kinds of barriers which in turn affect material choices and govern the superior language of speech. The choice of skatepark type not only affects the accessibility of different skateboarding styles, but most of all how the skate park merges with the surroundings. The choice of skatepark type should therefore always take in consideration the choice of location. We have chosen to divide skate park types in three different terms: street, flow and bowl. Furthermore, the concepts can be divided into subcategories and combined crosswise. The main goal should be achieving coherence between the specific needs of the users, the conditions of the site, the demands from officials and last but not least the budget.
SPOT 50-150m2 [street] SINGLE UNIT 150-500m2 [street, bowl, mini ramp...]
SMALL SKATEPARK 500-650m2
[street, flow, plaza...]
MEDIUM SKATEPARK 650-1200m2 BIG SKATEPARK 1200 - > m2
.: skatepark sizes
.: flow skatepark in Sundsvall, Sweden
14
A flow park is more or less organically shaped landscape where the user has the opportunity to carry out long lines throughout the entire surface. In order to achieve a complex, organically shaped geometry, cast concrete is unbeatable. Some skaters go for a bowl and some for a street, but virtually everybody likes a flow skatepark. Additionally, a flow skate park designed for skaters can also work well for Bmx, in-line or scooters. We think it is a very good option for a skate park, as it mixes the elements of both street and flow skating and also integrates better with the landscape architecture of the surroundings.
03 FOR OFFICIALS
.: recommended analysis
Where to place it? Before identifying any possible placements, the working group should conduct a dialogue on what you want to achieve with the skatepark. The motivation and objectives may vary. For some municipalities, the aim is to give the skaters a place to go, while others want to make use of the skate park’s potential for different purposes. One is not better than the other – the important thing is to take a stand for what you want. The following objectives are examples of the projects we have participated in so far. Some of the objectives have been formulated by the municipalities in advance, while some have arisen later in dialogue between the working group and us.
The skatepark will: - Create a positive atmosphere and offer activities in an affected residential area - Create life in the city park - Symbolize and promote the municipality’s focus on children and young people - Recover the city’s status as one of the Nordic skating destinations - Work as a meeting place for different generations - Establish creative environment in an up and coming residential area - Be able to function as a venue for major competitions Where the skate park should be, how it should be designed, to what extent it should be used for other public events, how much weight should be put on de-
sign etc. As having said before, what fuels the desire for the skatepark to open? This, among other things also depends on: - Soil technological conditions - Urban infrastructure connectivity - Natural preconditions (what is the topography like) - Distance to housing At Pivotech we desire to always be able to participate in the selection of location in the projects we are involved in. We recommend that the final decision on location is kept open for as long as possible so we can choose optimally the best location.
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03 FOR OFFICIALS
.: project timeline scheme
How to set up the project? Often underestimated issue in the municipality’s working group is choosing contractual form and how the project is carried out. For some come as a great surprise that the skatepark is classified as a construction project and not a complete product that can be ordered and assembled during the course of a month. Like any other public project, the implementation of the skatepark requires both design and execution. The contract determines the framework of the project which is the basis for the contractor’s work. How the two parts are delineated, what they contain and when the responsibility changes from adviser to entrepreneur depends on the type of contract. During the development of the industry since 2004, different types of contracts have been tested 16
in several projects, and the inherent strengths and weaknesses have been shown time after time. It is important to understand that a skatepark project differs in several areas compared with other public facilities such as buildings, bridges or playgrounds. The standards, laws and construction requirements that are part of this type of construction projects and products cannot be applied to the skatepark. The skatepark falls in a gray zone between sport facilities, playground and public squares. The most important aspects of a skate park are its geometry and finish of the surface, while the construction itself comes after. The project should not be limited by the construction plans - the latter should rather adjust to the geometry and finish of the surface. It is also
of high importance for the concrete to be functional and secured against frost and sinking. During the implementation a contractor should rather define the skatepark as a kind of function-oriented sculpture than try to adapt it to standards and rules that do not serve the purpose. Since the choice of most suitable contract varies from project to project, a working group should determine the contract and tender documents with the help of experienced adviser. It is also highly recommended that bidding contractors have to show their experience (e.g. reference projects) of designing/ building skateparks. This is the only way to ensure that the finished skatepark will turn out at as expected.
03 FOR OFFICIALS
Skate, BMX,in-line and scooters – same thing, or?
.: skatepark in NĂśrrkoping, Sweden
Throughout the guide we consistently use the concept of a skate park. This does not mean only skateboarders can use the skatepark. However, if the purpose of the skatepark is to accommodate a different user group then the skaters for example BMX riders some compromises are required to make the design as functional as possible for both groups. All being the ball games, basketball, handball and football have many similarities, yet still require different areas. Skateboarding, in-line and BMX have many similarities, but require different designs on obstacles and paths. Each design process should therefore be discussed with regard to the users for whom the facility is intended. 17
PIVOTECH We hope you find this guide helpful and encourage you to contact us if you feel anything has been unclear or missed out. You can reach us on our email: je@pivotech.se Or call us by phone: +45 27 89 90 48
PIVOTECH
© 2020 Pivotech. All rights reserved
