I don’t know what happened, but this was originally supposed to be a Grindline project. There are two appropriate area web presences that should have this info: one is mum, the other appears to be defunct. The city of San Francisco still has outdated information that they are dispensing to the Portero neighborhood community. If anyone knows what went down, please spill the beans. And remember, it’s gotta be true if you read it on the Interwebs™. Jeff “Ffej” Hedges sent in some pictures of Dreamland’s latest, the recently opened skatepark in San Francisco. He also pointed me to a link with some atmosphere (Notice I didn’t say lifestyle) shots from opening day posted by Greg Smith aka Schmitty from Thrasher. I wonder if Jeff has outgrown the “Ffej” references? I’m going to assume he hasn’t until I hear otherwise from him. Check his pics after the jump.
One more link. Here’s a set of construction photosby Flickr user Unaesthetic.
Here’s what Jeff had to say.
It didn’t open Friday (as the newspapers claimed it would) and I couldn’t get out there Saturday for the grand opening, but Sunday was good times – even if didn’t know anyone there. Same for today at lunch. Gonna drop by and drop in after work too. It is pretty damn good and its fun, but its no San Jose
Click to enlarge.
16 comments
bk
While I still lived in SF I was involved with several of the commission meetings for the Potrero Del Sol skatepark with SF Park and Rec, a handful of skaters, neighbors and Micah Shapiro from Grindline. The original design included a cradle, but ultimately it was eliminated due to cost and concerns from Red that there wasn’t enough space to generate enough speed to fully loop the cradle. In truth, more emphasis was put into the interest of the skaters and the street area.
All in all, the smoothness and flow of the skatepark speaks for itself with the collaboration of two of the best skatepark designers and builders out there. And yes, thankfully, Wormhoudt didn’t have the opportunity to drop another one of his “cookie cutter” skateparks on the city of SF for his portfolio. Those bragging rights rightfully belong to Grindline and Dreamland.
Pacific Hessian
nor cal finally has a non wormhoudt park!
jrk
Don’t worry about what happened, with Grindline/ Dreamland. Bottom line everyone did what needed to be done to get a proper park in California. People stuck there neck out, people lost jobs, etc. Bottom line SF has a park that the two best skatepark companies in the world were involved in and it turned out sick.
sutherlin mike
probably gonna head down there after work tomorrow. nice little drive from middle oregon to sf. sleep on a friends couch and check out that indy demo again.
Hakan Redneck
looks like a real nice place, some day -purhapse-I’ll skate it
sea cliff vert ramp
All I know is Dreamland did a hell of a job on the park. Buttery smooth doesn’t even begin to describe it. The coping is perfect. The flow area is great with various size quarterpipes, euro gap, painted curb, jersey barrier, tight faux brick quarter w/ parking block coping, etc. I’m gonna hit it again tonight around 6. Get some.
Kilwag
BK will have the story, or can track it down. But maybe some things are better left unsaid.
But, enquiring minds want to know…
conahan
Grindline/Dreamland worked pretty well in Battle Ground and I think contractor restrictions was the problem there
Wise Ass
British Knights!!1!!11
Tom Miller
BK will have the story, or can track it down. But maybe some things are better left unsaid.
Kilwag
I don’t think that was the problem though, from what I’ve read, Grindline was originally supposed to build it too…
conahan
I guess that’s fairly common. Designer and Builder can’t be the same firm. Perhaps the two parts of the project have to be bid separately? Portland Parks made some changes to their method of contracting to accomodate Design/Build for skateparks.
Kilwag
Yeah that’s what I thought at first, but it the final Grindline design looks nothing like what they actually got. And the city site has the design history with Grindline, but there’s a clear break with reality.
headcheese
RE: Dreamland vs Grindline – the gnarly ‘park manager’ guy i talked to on Friday said that there was some ‘conflict of interest’… the gist seemed to be Grindline was employed by the city to design the park, so therefore could not employ themselves to pour it…
The take-away i got was its Grindline designed, Dreamland poured… but who the fuck knows really.
dave
yeah its no San Jose…no parking fees and pad nannys
Larry
looks cool, pool coping all around…a bit of a drive for me but may check it soon!