Gresham skatepark RFP
The City of Gresham, Oregon released a request for proposals yesterday. Some items of interest: The RFP calls for a covered skatepark. Descriptions of obstacles and features describe a street plaza style park. The first half is supposed to be complete by December 2009. It’s about 15 miles out from Portland.
The City of Gresham (City) is interested in obtaining the services of a professional design-build team (Design- Builder) to design and construct a 10,000 – 12,000 SF public concrete recreational skate park facility located within Gresham Main City Park. (See Exhibit V-3: Main City Park Site Master Plan.)
Development is anticipated to include limited grading, drainage and construction of an integrated mixture of “Street Course” type features such as stairs of varying heights w/ handrails and hubba ledges, curbs, flat rails, pyramids, benches and concrete sidewalks. The Design-Builder shall coordinate with other Contractors who will be responsible for grading, drainage, 9-stall parking lot, irrigation and landscaping; all of which will be integral components of the design and construction of the skate park. Construction of the entire project with all components will be phased over time as funding is available; as such the project is to be treated as a “whole”, rather than separate pieces. An approximate 5,000 – 7,000 square foot skate park street course shall be available for public use by December 31, 2009 at the latest.
The skate park will be either fully or partially covered dependant upon the final design. The City is interested in exploring the feasibility of a steel-supported fabric cover vs. a more-traditional metal and wood structure. Proposers shall identify pros and cons of both and make a recommendation.
Park master plan from the RFP.
Google view of the site.
Cool. A covered park. What a great idea! Who would have thunk it?
Suddenly, my job just got more satisfying… except now that I read it, there is no mention of tranny. Bummer.
Surely they could squeeze a pool into that 12,000 square feet. Here we go again with the meetings.
Since it’s in Greshamphetamine, they ought to have some broken down cars as obstacles in front of a simulated methlab for the street section.
😉
wow. totally didn’t see that coming. just shanghai the process and make it a big barneybowl, since you tranny dudes are so underrepresented and don’t have anywhere to skate in the whole portland area, right?
Nice knee-jerk bailgun. Nowhere for the guy who works in Gresham to get a little lunchtime session in. A good pool might take up 1000 square feet. Why the greed? You want everyone to be just like you? I don’t.
I was at the last meeting, and will be at the rest of the meetings moving forward The first phase is plaza, the second phase will be transitions, and the third phase will be the cover over at least a portion of the park. Its a design build project. I know for a fact they sent RFP’s to Grindline, Dreamland, Placed to ride, and air speed, there were a few others on the list of Skate park builders that we gave them. Unfortunately kilwag and I will have to wait for phase 2 for our trannies. But in the community meetings the kids that showed over whelmingly wanted a street plaza so it will be built as phase 1, thats totally agreeable. Phase 2 will definitely be bowls and transitions from what I got out of the meeting. The Gresham Parks is very open to public input in the selection of design of the park and the builder builder. The Parks team Ric and justin are very committed to getting a quality park that will hopefully have a unique niche. Im pretty excited since its about 5 blocks from my house. if any one wants more info on this Troy at the Gromshop has been the lead community orginizer on this and is in constant contact with grehsam parks.
Oh and spohn Ranch got an RFP.
Good for Gresham skaters. Sounds like we will soon have another place to skate. Hey MC, this would be a good post for http://www.skateportland.org 🙂
I think they sent the RFP to Newline. The email I got said they had interest from B.C. Nice to hear they will also build some transition. The roof should be part of phase one though. That will be the big win.
I agree and maybe they will change the phases because i am sure the roof wouldnt cost as much as the transitions. Yea newline was mentioned in the meeting too, there is a few i missed im pretty sure.I made sure they had contact info for the NW companies that im aware of.
They do want a way to give the park its own niche to draw skaters from other areas. the roof will do that for sure to a degree but they want something in it to stand out from the others and make the park a destination year round. So if any one has any ideas post em and ill mention in the next meeting for sure.
this old fart is still confused as to the need to build ‘street’ plazas in a skatepark, when the rest of the world has ‘street’ stuff all over the place. sadly tranny is not a common component of most city architechture.
I LOVE street vs tranny! Lets party like its 2003!
hal9000, I’m going to assume that you live in Portland. I’m also going to assume that you go downtown on occasion. I’m now going to ask you to take a look around the next time you are in downtown Portland. Look at the ledges that are capped. Take a peek at the rails that have dumb shit welded to them. It don’t take long to realize that fuckin’ all of them are skatestopped. Finding a nice ledge is about like finding a pool nowadays.
Is is redundant to point out that one would have to drive past a perfectly good 50% tranny park (Glenhaven) to get out to this park? Have you guys noticed how there is never anyone in those bowls (unless the Bacon team shows up)?
Back to topic: I haven’t went to the last meeting (or two), but last I knew they were looking at around 16.5 K sq ft, so the phased approach will make it much more affordable.
The only thing I’m pushing for is a skateable path from the MAX to the park. Something like a nice sidewalk with some banks, ledges, benches, taco’s – shit like that. I’m hoping we can find some sort of federal funding since its totally a mass transit thing…..
Anybody got any ideas where we can come up with about 10 million for the rest of the Portland parks? We are out of cash….
if they built “plazas” with creative structures like in this video it would make sense. But they are always just stairs, rails, curbs, and banks same stuff that can be found every where. A little creativity in the plazas would be kool
Skate and Create
bah sorry hit it from here http://www.sleestak.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=5034
street,tranny,vert,pool,bank to wall,ditch,pole jam…skate it all. We are so lucky to have concrete parks in Oregon. Just keep airspeed away from the finish process.
Mini ramps are the only thing worth skating! Anyone who pays to skate at ANY skatepark is a fag! Only old douchebags wear pads! Street skating is for wanna be gangstas who suck cock!
I’m with scum on this one, at least with his first point. When did street vs. tranny become a legit debate? When the last rollerblader died? Let focus the hate in the right direction: BMXers. They are not like us at all. Once we kill them off we can continue this civil war.
/too many chefs spoil the broth
//too many fingers in this pot of chili
I’m all for diversity. I’m not complaining about street plaza, we need street plazas. I ‘d just like to see a little tranny in there as well.
There will be.
Then I’m a happy camper.
Croquet! I love croquet!
When is Badminton gonna get some play? HEHEHEHE
Kill BMXers…Hoorah?
Who is in?
keep newline out of the States: look what they are doing to screw up Seattles’ scene.
Wheres Ceiling Cat to bury that dead internet turd known as Skaters ‘for’ Public Skateparks by the way?
who cares.. skate it all. and fuck you! BMXers are my buddies and so is airspeed.SHRALP ON!
peg hit me in the knee…they go so fast…wrcked our parks coping…it isn’t the adults; it’s the little kids on their Huffy’s. They always get in my way…liability…most of them aren’t allowed in the park in the first place; if i have to follow rules so should they…
I was waiting for some hate(whislting as I casually pour gasoline on the fire).
no newline
Is that who is building the Seattle parks? I was wondering because the Seattle area has some of the worst parks I have ever seen. 1/2 of them are prefab crap, then i finally find a crete one “Sprinker” and its horrible. did newline build sprinker? I really do not like that place. Im glad I live in Oregon:P
You mean corncobcocksucker! SUCK ON!
Newline is building that red headed abortion of a Seask8 park at Seattle Center.
The monkeys (TF Sahli) that built Sprinker, Kent III and other south-end disasters were responsible for the work at Lower Woodland. They underbid Grindline due to a shoddily worded RFP so we got the shit-covered end of the stick.
Did Newline partner with a local construction firm in Seattle? California Skateparks is executing the Newline design for Ed Benedict park in SE Portland.
i’m pretty fine with newlines actual work (except some of those asphalt/blacktop mistakes from the past), in WA state theres a law saying a firm can’t design and build a project. The designer is VanDer-Assholea-or something and can fucking go to hell and die for all I care. I think they work hand-in-ass with each other though so be cautious. We’re paying the mistake. Fucker didn’t listen to any of the Seattle skaters or taxpayers and made their own little fruitloop park. Photos of said abortion on the ‘stak, as usual.
Read this crap though – they try real hard to make it sound good. Can’t polish a turd I guess.
http://newlineskateparks.com/morenews.php?id=66
not that I know of ..
A 3 Million Dollar contract because they have to tear down buildings etc.. & fix Key Arena underground stuff at Seattle Center.. The skatepark contract was for
500,000 plus, but for a 10,000 or so sf(square foot) park?? Shit with THat kind of money it should be NEWBERG SIZE!@! F*&^ing BS
Bill Gates basically the richest man in the world bought the land and tore the skatepark down and less than a million is the donation he gives for a skatepark?? Not to mention the fact Seattle tore it down and has not replaced it in over how many years??
NO wonder NewLine said they could put in exotic surfaces ex. tons of marble etc.. of course with that money & small squaRe fOOtage.. THat should be 2 levels parking garage style so some people in the NW can ride in the winter…
This is what replaces over 10 plus years of a SEA Center Skate Park..
In the early 90s iT used to have a lot more sf, and was metal & wood ramps with the biggest pyramid in the known world..
THen it got moved and made a lot smaller sf area and smaller ramps like from 9fts with channels & roll ins to 5fts etc.. then that got torn down and a concrete park with transitional elements & some street type stuff was built that had some fun things but also some bad lines & transitions then that got torn down……….Now a street plaza will replace that with inadequate square footage.. Newline got the gig cause their fancy proposals with landscape architecture firms & shit looks nice/ people can sit there when skateboarders are not skating.
QUestion Are skateparks getting built to look nice or to be functional? People worked hard for years, to secure this deal????
Isn’t Seattle the Emerald City??? WHERE IS the YELLOW BRICK TRANSITION ROAD with curbs & hips! EH..
Sounds liek Seattle got shafted yet again.
here’s from the idiots site and especially Note this bald faced lie:
“Our task will be to blend the goals and dreams of Seattle skaters”
“Seattle Centre – Skateable Sculpture Plaza
Date Posted: 2/8/2008
VDZ has been retained with partners Newline and Weinstein AU architects, to plan, design, and contract manage a new plaza in Seattle. The Project is located in the heart of Seattle Centre Campus at the base of both the Key arena and the world famous – Space Needle. Our task will be to blend the goals and dreams of Seattle skaters, with current campus function and neighbourhood context.
VDZ is extremely pleased to be selected for this commission. The location, and committment from the client and stakeholders indicate that this project will be ”world class” and will set a standard for urban skate plaza”s around the USA.”
i have been pissed about the whole deal. you can thank the spineless pussies at the SPAC (seattle skatepark ‘action’ (note i use that loosely) committee), especially MATT JOHNSON, RYAN BARTH and their little cockboy SCOTT SHINN with plenty of help from SPS – SKATERS AGAINST PUBLIC SKATEPARKS. Deem me as an outcast, a crazyman whatever at least i’m a god damn SKATEBOARDER (Unlike you fags) and proud of it.
furthermore read their basic “fuck you” to the Seattle Skaters they were SUPPOSED to listen to here:
http://www.vdz.ca/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=95
NLskate is NEW LINE by the way.
Like this:
“[i]Originally posted by nlskate[/i]
[br] This is a very funny discussion….We explored the idea of a bowl and came to the conclusion it doesn’t work for this project.”
“[i]Originally posted by nlskate[/i]
Anyway, I hate to be the bad guy here but the bottom line is there is not going to be a seperate bowl at this park. If you guys are coming to the meeting tomorrow hoping to see or hoping we will continue to entertain the idea you will likley be disappointed. I don’t believe we need to explain ourselves or prove anything because this is something some of you will clearly never understand.”
Sounds like a fun park! And who cares if it’s got a funky finish? Ever skate Keizer? Hard to skate equals fun… The only rule in skatepark design should be no rules.
And hat’s off to Balcom for representing kids needs.
And whoever you anti-BMX types are, get over it. Bikes are a pain in the ass, but acting like spoiled brats toward them only makes skaters look like dicks.
that’s so not fitzpatrick who posted that
true that.
The whining about covered vs. not-covered is so freakishly retarded. Spoiled, I’d say.
What’s covered? Lincoln City II? Seems to me most of us skate Oregon parks year-round in skateparks without covers. Or do you wait until June-August to skate?
Also, since when is there any kind of shortage of transition in an Oregon skatepark?
Wah wah wah wah! No tranny! WHAT IS A FELLOW TO DO?
Oh, wait. I know. We could drive a couple miles in any direction for a free alternative with plenty of tranny. Oh yeah!
I don’t even know you people any more.
Your pear-shaped ass is planted in a $1,000 chair complaining on the company dime about the most retarded things. Most skaters push for miles in the rain from one set of stairs to the next.
It’s for those teens this style of skatepark is being created, not for you old white males, surrounded as you are by a thicket of world-famous skateparks.
God.
Tell ya what, when we get a free, covered park built (with lights) in the Portland Metro area, promise all the old white males that you won’t come skate it in the middle of the next three week winter rain spell. Just cause we’ve got it the better than anyone else is no reason to get complacent and not push for better.
Hal9000 sounds like an outdated skateboarder who hasn’t actually been street skating since the 1980’s, if at all.
Seriously, Hal. When was the last time you skated the banks down in the SE Industrial Area? Push down the street, ollie up the curb, frontside ollie on the tiny banks, then back off the sidewalk? Or over the impossibly gnarly hip? Ever ride the steel-edged ledges two blocks away?
There’s human shit all around, and homeless people. There’s cops, too, so your sessions have to be quick. Oh yeah, and not to mention CARS. Did you know that the leading cause of skater hospitalization is being hit by cars? Did you know that a skater a week dies in traffic, by getting hit by cars?
Yeah, I didn’t think so. You don’t skateboard, outside of a skateboard park. I bet you quit for years, and only recently started again, now that there’s plenty of free, safe, and clean skateboard parks. It’s sort of like it was in the 1970’s, when you were in your mid-20’s, except today the skateparks are free!
Nowadays you get to sleep till 11 on a Sunday, drive to a funky cafe, have brunch with your other old friends, then drive your German car to some skatepark, pad up, listen to 40-year old punk music, do some:
– frontside grinds
– backside rock and rolls
– backside grinds
– Nope, that’s it. No other tricks.
Then sit on the deck and talk about Tony Alva for the duration of the afternoon. Then come home, iron your shirts for next week’s work week, while you and the old lady watch TLC.
Eat some humble pills, asshole. Your own words convict you as a tired old keyboarder.
And who is this Bobcat dude? Sounds like he needs fucking therapy. hahaha
The internet is funny, and I love that I get to do this from school.
Sorry Kilwag. I skate all year long, and it doesn’t pour constantly. It drizzles, then dries, then drizzles, then dries. The concrete feels sticky and fresh. The water washes the concrete of pollen and dust. The fresh air burns in my nose and it’s the best time of year to skate. In the winter you can always peel layers off, versus the summer when you are hot and there’s too many people skating.
This is how I’m able to skate almost every day, so I don’t quite understand this cover thing. Am I understanding you? It sounds as if you’d take less skatepark for some cover. That trade off is retarded.
Don’t mean to start some sort of flame war, but this shit is retarded. Seems as if some of you want back massages and pedicures and shit. I don’t even know who you guys are. But I’m not on the internet very much, either.
Burt thanks for the straw arguement, however it isn’t about street vs. bowl – it is about a greedy contractor that is going to not listen to the skateboarders and build whatever they want to build.
Now please leave the internet.
Come on, you’re in complete denial if you are saying there are not several stretches solid rain, lasting for multiple days. Look it up in an Almanac. Nobody wants all the skateparks covered, but I can’t see anyone making an argument against the concept completely. Except you, I guess.
Tell ya what, when we get a free, covered park built (with lights) in the Portland Metro area
Isnt Burnside meeting your needs? Or does it have no lights? Can you bring your own?
Suck it clowns.
Sorry I had to say something in a 43 post topic and that’s all that comes to mind.
SF
Isnt Burnside meeting your needs? – Busted. I’ve been called out. Oh wait, no lights, but you can bring lights if you have them. Burnside (That I ride once a year) can still get rained out. The “roof” is really high up.
In an ideal world, if rain came straight down we’d be fine with just roofs.
now for that therapy since a high school douchebag called me out!
I guess that Bobcat just told me I dont skate. I guess I thought that I did, but have been corrected.
Since I apparently no longer skate (probably never did), I guess I dont care about what gets built anymore.
Sorry.
where does it say that Chad?
I like Burt’s back massage idea. Maybe we could trade one less park for back massages?
Burt, enjoy your youth. Enjoy skating in the streets… its hard I know, but skaters have been doing it and getting sponsored for it, longer than you have been alive. Some even enjoy the rawness of it.
PS .. the hip in industrial SE isn’t impossible… it just seems impossible.
will the massages have happy endings?
“There
My friend just told me waht a “happy ending” is. hahahah school is worthless. It took the internet to teach me what’s really important.
🙂
bobcat Says:
September 9th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
where does it say that Chad?
bobcat Says:
September 8th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
i have been pissed about the whole deal. you can thank the spineless pussies at the SPAC (seattle skatepark
Burt for president.
I still don’t see where it specifically says Chad in there?
since you like to drop names, care to elaborate why Newline would put this BS on this site then turn around 110% and do the opposite? Newline, you there? I know you are.
From Newlines site again:
“Our task will be to blend the goals and dreams of Seattle skaters, with current campus function and neighbourhood context.”
From their Architects:
Oaks Park session tomorrow at noon
I’m confused, Ryan. Are you suggesting roller skating in circles?
what a bunch of mama boy fags.tranny vs street.
a skater, skates it all.wants it all in one park,thrasher style.if you dont have tranny with street u get another lame ass park.
maybe somebody should mention to be creative when building rather than the same old shit like glenhaven.pillars,spining wheels, step up banks and shit people don’t skate on the street.try somthing new.
Not sure why guys with their own world-famous skate blogs are spending time writing about red-headed abortions in Seattle on a thread about a proposed skatepark near Portland, and doing it on someone else’s blog, but NewLine just released the final renderings for the Seattle Center skatepark today and they’re pretty nifty. That’s right, I called them nifty. Sorry for not using more inflammatory words like cockboy or fag, but that’s never been my style. Pictures available here:
http://seattleskateparks.org/?p=338
And good luck with the Gresham skatepark! 🙂
fuck you scott get out of here you don’t even skate you pile of shit
SPAC Cockboys: A City wide skatepark plan, Ballard, Lower Woodland, SeaSk8, with Delridge and Jefferson Park on the way.
Bobcat: zero
Didn’t ballard and SeaSk8 already exist…
Don’t worry Bobcat, they’ll probably tear down the new seask8 in a couple of years and have to rebuild another one.