Curitiba, Brasil spot check
December 11th, 2007 by conahan
Our friend Tom Miller writes:
Just back from a work trip to Curitiba, Brasil. Conahan asked to shoot photos of anything interesting skate-related. Just when I was thinking I wasn’t going to see anything of note, we arrived at the Oscar Niemeyer Museum. The museum structure is novel, but skaters are going to be more interested in the walkway.
I couldn’t help but think if you call it “art” the dollars come running at you. If you call it “50 feet of mini ramp at Ed Benedict Park” suddenly the budget doesn’t allow for it until the mythological “phase 2.” We don’t need any more skateparks. We need public art that coincidentally accommodates skateboarding.
Nuff said.
Curitiba, Brasil - Click to enlarge.
December 11th, 2007 at 10:28 am
Ain’t that the truth!
December 11th, 2007 at 11:02 am
I wonder how the plaza advocates would feel about a couple hundred feet of miniramp as a skatepark if it were designed like that? I always think of Oscar Neimeyer’s Brasilia when talk comes around to plazas.
December 11th, 2007 at 11:56 am
You’d think for an Oscar Meyer museum they’d have some hot dog related art
December 11th, 2007 at 12:02 pm
Pretty sure you can get a set of pads to protect those widdow feewings from getting hurt.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
Stop mumbling.
December 11th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
I can’t help it. Tom made me so sad with his stories of persecution. Won’t skateboarders put the extreme sportsmen first?! We need a local to beat Jake Brown’s record!
December 11th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
Carl, you’ve got the persecution complex, or some sort of personal problem with Tom. You’re really grasping at straws here.
December 11th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
I found slappy stairs when I was in Rio.
http://www.ramplocalsonly.com/RampLocalsOnly/Rio_Street.html
December 11th, 2007 at 3:46 pm
Hopefully this link works better http://tinyurl.com/36nb8q
December 11th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
I was thinking why not apply for all sculpture art projects but just make them skateboardable and intended (allowed) to function for skateboarders. I got a couple good idea/water feature & other vortex madness creations. At least get a skateboarder at every landscape architect firm and other areas to add some more function to those great features we see created everywhere. Ok maby start that eco-friendly walkways with skateboardable features company..
bla bla bla bla bla bal bla
December 12th, 2007 at 12:43 am
anyone up to import brasilia and barcelona’s architects to make a super skatepark company? it should be called…visio-accidente
December 12th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
kilwag when you use the phrase “grasping at straws” what do you envision? A dude about to fall down a bottomless pit actually grasping at straw like grass at the edge of it, or a desperate movie scene where people are forced to draw straws to determine their terrible fate, or is it a random flash of an angry person mindlessly flailing in a bright white empty diner as thousands of flexi-straws rain (in slow-mo) down from nowhere … just wondering.
December 12th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Errr… yeah. I don’t know, I didn’t invent the term.
Hold it, I’m getting a vision… It’s two ten year old kids playing Last Straw. One kid gets mad at the other one, throws a fit and grabs all his straws and goes home.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
I picture a drunk yet handsomely bearded skateboarder in his late 20’s at the “Elbow Room”,struggling to guide his whiskey soda down his throat via mouth to straw without using any hands. And repeatedly losing to a lack of dexterity…..and impossible odds.
December 12th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
P.S: I did invent the term and it fully means what I just described. Any other interpretation would be completely wrong.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
I appreciate the following comment may momentarily buzzkill the insatiable joy some find in internet spitballing about curved vs. non-curved concrete, but I’ll make it anyway.
My commentary about the 50 feet of mini ramp New Line has designed for Ed Benedict wasn’t about terrain but about the challenge of finding dollars for skateparks vs. something else. My day job positions me well to see public dollars come and go. And truth be told, art dollars are relatively hard to come by compared to a lot of things. However, the point remains dollars for skateparks remain very close to the bottom of the priority barrel.
It’s not that (Portland’s) elected officials hate skateparks. It’s just not on their radar screen because it’s not part of their own personal experience, and there is not a consistent presence of skaters reminding them constantly that dollars are needed. You can’t blame them.
Now back to your regularly scheduled spitball fight.
December 12th, 2007 at 8:24 pm
Does this mean no palm trees at Ed Benedict?