I don’t know who is running this, but Seattle’s newest incarnation of SeaSk8 has a blog. There’s not much up there right now as it’s only been active for a handful of days. At the risk of infuriating Bobcat, go check it out. However, if you want to get on his good side, check out his rambling alcohol fueled history of SeaSk8 after the jump.
There’s more…
I’ve been hearing some rumblings about the new X Games Skateboard Park Course. It supposed to be concrete, and temporary, which are two things that sound like they are at odds. The street course at the Maloof Cup might have been made using prefab elements that can be disassembled and reused elsewhere, but will the same thing work on a bowl complex? The real interesting thing is that I’ve heard rumors that the X Games course will be made from concrete poured over a wood frame and/or styrofoam combo. Styrofoam in a skatepark construction is nothing new – (See here and here) It’s been used in the soon to open (already open?) Seattle SeaSk8 replacement, mainly for it’s lightweight benefits. The new location is on top of some underground elements of Seattle Center. Again, these are rumors, I haven’t been able to corroborate them, but concrete over a wood frame… puzzling. OK readers, who is connected? What’s really going on?
I was in the Seattle burbs over the weekend. I did get in a couple sessions at the Sammamish Wa skatepark, which was overrun by scooters and bladers on both occasions. That park sucks. I think I was way to generous in my first review. Still, part of the fun in that park is figuring out how to have fun at that park. One day I happened to be in the neighborhood of the the new Seattle Center skatepark (replacement for the demolished SeaSk8) so I decided to check it out. So far it’s just a flat slab of concrete, which is not what I expected at all. It makes it look like the elements are going to be prefab. But hey, I don’t know anything about skatepark building, except that the only other street plaza I saw under construction still looked like a conventional dig site. There were a couple of guys there who looked like they were painting a ledge that went around the perimeter of the park, something that doesn’t show up in the renderings. All in all, I’m confused. You can check out some not very enlightening photos after the jump, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
There’s more…
The final design and contractor for the replacement of Seattle’s skatepark that was dozed by Bill Gates has been chosen. You can check out the renderings or follow the saga at SeattleSkateparks.org. It’s a newline design, but who is the build contractor? For some reason it’s under wraps until the contract is signed. Construction is supposed to start in the spring. What I want to know is where are they growing those alien-like blurry trees that are showing up in the renders?
- Thanks to Scott Shinn for the tip.
While we were out… Seattle’s City Center skate park or SeaSk8 as it sometimes gets called, was demolished to make way for a new Bill Gates foundation complex. January 3 of 2007 marked the second time in recent years that the city of Seattle tore down a perfectly good skatepark to appease developers. Of course some might argue that the Seattle Center park was not exactly perfectly good. As with Ballard, more money was allocated to replacing the skatepark. Talk about inefficiency, why not just build two new parks and leave the old ones accessible? It’s clear that I don’t understand or appreciate eminent domain and the wheels of commerce. Pre/post demolition pics, links and more after the jump. [Credits: Demo Picture – Auggiedawg, Fascist Bill Gates – The Software War There’s more…
