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.
64 comments
Chad Balcom
Its 2009 and we are still arguing street vs tranny?
dosen’t sound like we are smart enough for either
Billy D
Nice – the secret’s out. At least a local company is involved. It would have been nice to get a bowl too but at this point, no matter how it comes out, I’ll be there. I’ll be the old, fatass getting in your way while trying to do kickflips. The dudes that skated that lumpy old Seask8 all the time will probably be stoked regardless too.
bobcat
so which passive aggressive fucktard is ‘seattle skateboarder’?
PS: double fuck Scott Shinn!
Dirty Dan
thats funny, I totaly thought about you reading this when i wrote it! These guys on here will be stoked..
mtrain
Way to blow the secret 3rd place dad. I miss DaddyYo……
Dirty Dan
This shit is tight! Skaters heckling each other.. Grindline is building the new seaskate but they are just going to follow the plan you see in the photo i guess.. Old Seaskate was wierd too and we had fun there so fuck it! The more parks the better..See you at Innerspace!
bobcat
additionally, great job derailing the topic on seask8. again, this issue has been re-hashed on other boards over the last 2 fucking years we haven’t had a central skatepark so you’ll get no sympathy here.
since you are bitter about marginal, go tell tim you don’t want me raising money and i’ll go away. that’s what i’m good at. i have a seriously herniated lower back so i can’t do hard labor anymore. as for ‘being seen’ in the cool kids club, gee i’ll take that as a compliment. i didn’t know we still were in the 8th grade and had to be all seen together to skate. good luck with that and i hope you out yourself to let me know what fool you are.
love,
Jason
bobcat
seattle skateboarder – I never claimed to be a voice of anything. I’m just a skateboarder as well. Sorry you have sand in your vagina about me. What have you done to help out the seattle scene? Let me guess, you sit in a meeting once a month with a bunch of nancypants and discuss why no one shows up then go around back and congratulate each other.
Why don’t you use your real name by the way.
Ryan Heckler
don’t take me too serious, I am just being bored cause too wet to skate and Mt Bachelor has had super high winds, too much pent up energy for my own good…..
a seattle skateboarder
And for those of you fretting about people not being “satisfied” with whats being built?
“Satisfied” is just another word for “complacent” as far as I’m concerned.
a seattle skateboarder
And I apologize if I sounded like a dick with my little kickturn heckles. I’ve seen a lot of your crew skate and you guys don’t suck at skateboarding. What a lot of you seem suck at is listening.
Dang! There I go, sounding like a dick again.
Ryan Heckler
I still think it is the stick in your ass making you grumpy
cold ones
Forget “real skaters”. How will this park be received by one who may be a skateboarder of sorts who skates a skateboard of sorts? Where’s the fly out line in this skatepark of sorts?
a seattle skateboarder
If I sound grumpy, do you think I might have a reason?
I’ll say the same shit people have been saying in this stupid litle pissing match forever. Lets say the situation was reversed, and plazas had been popping up all over the place, with the occasional crappy little token bowl thrown in. The street stuff in these parks is epic. Marble ledges, brick texture here and there, skatable art that’s actually compelling to look at and skate, etc etc etc… But the crappy little bowl off to the side appears to be built by dudes that don’t even skate. Many of the skateparks you have access to
are like this. Some are better than others, but they all have that same thing in common: that goddamn bowl that just isn’t that great.
Then, like a miracle from heaven, dreamland and grindline are hired to collaborate on a park in your area. They’re saying its gonna be like Orca’s Island Part II. Finally, something you want to ride. Something you’ve been wanting to ride for a long time, but the powers that be keep building all these stupid plazas with crappy little bowls off to the side. You have fun skating at the plazas, but of course, you really want to be able to hit a nice hip that leads you somewhere besides a kinked flatwall.
You’re HYPED. You go to a design meeting. The design meeting is at a BOWLing alley, and BOWLS of chips and salsa are served, and everything is hunky-dory. Sage, Hubbard, and Red present a design that has your mouth watering, thinking of the lines you’ll be able to try…
Then out of nowhere, a bunch of teenagers come in and the park and rec dude who seemed to be on your side hands them all markers, and they draw ledges in the flatbottom and stairs down some of the trannies.
This is heralded by the park and rec goon as the final design, and since this is Seattle, the city of lies, a sidewalk building company is hired to do the construction because DL/GL were deemed “too expensive” for the project.
The sharpied-up original plans are followed to the letter by the sidewalk crew, and the park is built.
Enjoy your new skatepark, bro. And don’t ask for another one, because this is Seattle, and we hate youth culture here. (just please don’t tell the tourists, ok?)
This is obviously a major exaggeration/oversimplification, but does it give any insight as to why I might sound grumpy?
nweyesk8
I have skated for over 25 years and only ever had health insurance when i was under 18 and living at home,over 17 years ago. I did the Reedsport loop sans insurance and I didn’t have any insurance a few weeks ago when a tree took me out on Mt. Bachelor. I figure if I mis-manage my body bad enough, I will step in line and ask for a government bailout like every other gambler in the economic game.
brk
fitz said: “Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq skaters haven
Kilwag
NEW WINNER: a Seattle Skateboarder
a seattle skateboarder Says:
Sure would be nice if some Canadian health care was included in the design.
Insert Daddy Yo rant about socialism, the economy, Clinton and Obama. –
curtis
bailgun, that is kinda like my quote ,but that is not my reasoning or attitude. what I really meant to say was real skaters will skate regardless of if they have a skatepark or no., “a seattle skateboarder” knows that as a marginal way guy, and his points are well taken with me. I think he’s mostly right. and you are right on the money about me being ignorant of what it is like to deal with security or cops for skating anymore. the cool thing it that since skating has evolved so much beyond my ability, that my street spots are not a bust because kids don’t bother with them. being older than the average cop and fully bearded helps make them want to just drive on by. I’m more of a “take it to the mini-ramp dawg” kinda guy. I think street features at skateparks are great so kids can get their chops down and not be such an eyesore trying some trick over and over and over out on the street. matbe business owners etc. would not care if skaters busted tricks just cruising by and not “hanging out”. I also like stairs in skate parks, they make it easy for me to get out of the bowl.
no skatepark I go to seems like it was designed for me. I need to learn the inherent sweetness in them, find my way to love them, and its always fun. I agree with Fitz.
Seattle is a goofy (i’m talking about the government) city. just how many skateparks have they torn down so far (including that DIY bowl over in west seattle). I lived there for 8 or 10 years, and when I go to Portland I kinda feel like I wasted my time in Seattle.
a seattle skateboarder
What is this “Medical Insurance” you speak of?
Sure would be nice if some Canadian health care was included in the design.
Fitz
…and if you lack medical insurance, but skate anyway, everything you make is that much gnarlier.
BJJPDX/Tom
Well put Fitz.
these guys would love to have that park, or any other. http://skateistan.org/
Fitz
Remember, we live in a society where we have the luxury of risking life and limb for recreational purposes. I haven’t heard much from the Gaza Skatepark Advisory Committee in the last few days. And Israel, Afghanistan and Iraq skaters haven’t had much to say on the topic of park design either.
Before you get all bent out of shape about bowls or ledges, consider how lucky you really are.
Fortuna Mandolin
Considering how much better the old seaskate was, and how much time and money went into this, it does look pretty meek. I will still ride nonetheless, but there seems to be more room for spectating and lurking rather than skating.
chomp
What is the deal with people getting all uptight and pissed at each other for stating their opinion? Ya, its a stupid design in my view because the “bowl” part is open to the rest of the park. What sense does that make? Two separate sections would would have made a lot more sense. Flame On!
a seattle skateboarder
OK. You’re right. But before you throw your shoulder out patting yourselves on the back, all you “real skateboarders” should take a moment to remember that without the kids clogging up the streets trying to get a session in, its pretty hard to demonstrate the need for a skatepark in the first place. So, you can bitch you want about the kids finally getting something specifically for them, or you can get in your car and go skate one of the nearly countless parks that the terrain you’ll enjoy.
Guess which option won’t make you seem like a grumpy old poop?
Kilwag
seattle skateboarder – You’re sounding as grumpy as the old poops. I’m just saying, don’t put people down for not being as good as you, or enjoying a different type of terrain than you.
This park looks like it might be fun, hard to tell from a rendering what the real scale is. I have to agree with comments on the open bowl. I hate that kind of implementation. I prefer flow at a park, but at the same time my favorite spot right now is the tight tranny long ledge at Gabriel Park, a feature that I use in a manner that contains no flow whatsoever.
I agree, we should all be grateful that any parks are being built. But also I think people have a right to feel disappointed when when a skatepark in perfectly usable condition gets torn down and replaced with something that doesn’t resemble the previous structure, or take into account the existing community of users at that particular park. I don’t know what happened, as I wasn’t at the meetings and I wasn’t a park local. However, every I ever saw the old park, it was mostly empty.
Did the taxpayers pick up the bill for the new park? It seems like it should have been a precondition of the sale of property. Gates should have had to fund the replacement, or the cost should have been built into the sale. If it wasn’t then the blame lies with city managers, not the architect. If it was, I can see how any Seattle skateboarder would be upset that the project wasn’t cost-effective. That means less money for the rest of the skatepark system.
BJJPDX/Tom
I pretty much agree with Fitz’s view on it, and Kilwags definition.
Its funny in the 80’s we complained about not having parks and getting kicked out everywhere. Now that we have more parks than we’ve ever imagined, and more parks per capita than about anywhere in the country, we have to complain about the parks. I guess there will never be any satisfaction.
personally I am pretty stoked about the parks that are out there and I am especially stoked that its been decriminilized for the most part. I hate crowds so I go early but it is 100% better than having nothing. Even the shittiest parks out there would have made my day if they would have been around in the 80’s, as far as reliving glory years, the first bowl I ever skated was when I was 35 and I bet that holds close to true for alot of native NW people since there never was much of a bowl seen here back in the day, at least not in PDX. Parks, diy spots, janky spots around town, the curb in front of my house its all fun for me.
of course I suck for the most part but the best part of skating for me is there were no jerseys or scores, it was about expression,fun and freinds and it wasnt a competitive sport.
emt
Socal Skateparks will build it if Newline is designing it.
The best part is Newline can’t come down and build it cause they’re Canadian, but Socal Skateparks will send illegal labor up from Cali.
Fitz
While I may not skate everything, I’m beyond tired of bothering with advocacy, etc. Too many egos involved, and too many agendas.
Build whatever. If it sucks to me personally, I’ll go somewhere else, build my own, adapt, go fishing or surfing…
Nothing lasts forever. Skateparks really aren’t such a big deal in the grand scheme of things.
Kilwag
An aside to a seattle skateboarder – a “real skateboarder” is anyone who enjoys skateboarding on a regular basis, regardless of age or skill level.
bailgun
curtis, that “real rebels don’t need skateparks, take it to the streets, dawg.” line of reasoning is fucked, and if you’ve tried to get a good session at a street spot lately, you’d know that.
Tony D.
I agree with Fitz on this too. Anyplace to skate is good stuff. Skating everything is where it’s at.
Tony D.
Carl is so friendly in person…. Actually the “transitional elements” were not a solution to the bowl question but since I was at the design meetings I’d know that. But it is the way it is and I’m sure there will be skaters there having fun and that’s cool.
I can do kick turns at marginal too and it’s fun to get to skate on stuff I helped build. It’s true I’m a broken, old skater but I think that makes me real enough to earn doing kick turns here and there.
There I go again. Seeking approval from “real” skaters….
Fitz
Boo-hoo! It’s a place to skate where nobody is going to hassle you! And dammit, they’re even going to go so far as to provide various features you’d have a hard time finding somewhere else!
Fuck all that, huh?
curtis
the park does look fun, but what I don’t like about it is I can tell it is the type of place that I will need to bust out some kickturns or some tic-tacs. I do like the bowls because they have nothing to do with what you might call my glory days (the 80’s, you had to kickturn and push in those days). but to me the glory days are now!. I am better at skating than I was when I was a boy, and there are great places to skate everywhere. I’m sure you just did not choose you words wisely when you used the term “real skateboarders”. real skateboarders don’t need skateparks, fake pools is one thing, but fake streets are just to pacify the rebels. thanks for working hard on marginal way!
a seattle skateboarder
I live in Seattle, been here for years, and that park looks fun as hell to me. Then again, I’ve skated stuff besides skatepark bowls in the past five years, so i am obviously unqualified to comment on a skatepark design, especially one that’s designed for the real skateboarders and not old men reliving their glory days through endless kickturning. And an aside to Bobcat, you are not the voice of Seattle skateboarding. Stop trying to be. We’ve noticed you ranting and complaining every chance you get, but have yet to see you session anywhere or help out on a work day at Marginal. I guess microphones are a lot more fun than shovels.
Kilwag
WINNER: bill bowlrider!
No effing kidding! That thing was overdue months ago. What’s the holdup!
nweyesk8
it looks like the ‘glass’ riding surface is a burnside pillar with no real vert
Miguel
That hey punk thing at the old seask8 park was fun. That old park wasnt too bad this design looks weak and I like to mess around a little on street type stuff. Wheres the bowl?
curtis
this looks like a “skate spot” not a “skatepark”
BJJPDX/Tom
didnt notice the glass. Trippy. seems like a small park for all the hype and money behind it. But the pictures show a pretty sweet looking stair set right across the street from the park that would be fun. Seems funner to me to skate spots not designed to skate, and less crowds. thats just me though, im weird about crowds.
bill bowlrider
looking st this post makes me think… when the hell is ed benedict gonna open?
Kilwag
It says there are glass riding surfaces… Very cool… until they get broken. Unless it’s bullet proof glass? I don’t know much about the potential properties of glass, but it I’d find it hard to believe it won’t be a mass of scratches a month after it opens. If not from skateboarders, then from idiot taggers scratching their names into it.
ssk
That design looks really bad. Aesthetically a non skater might be impressed, but where are the lines? Theres no flow. And a pump bump in front of stairs?
Estes' Ghost
Looks like a crop circle formation from UFO waste…….could be better- somebody is getting a new condo, Hummer or Yacht for designing that……..Bobcat, you must hate the politcal BS.
Will Jones
looks like a street plaza thing i guess, cool
bobcat
HERE’s THE LINK
why is it taking underscores out?
Kilwag
Bobcat – Beats me. I can go back and edit them (and I did) and they will stay. WordPress kooks it a little in the comments. I need to see if there is a plugin that fixes/breaks that.
bobcat
Carl, you’re my friend but seriously butt out of this. You haven’t lived here for years. This is our loss.
In other news i found a hidden message
http://www.sleestak.net/forum/userpix/2_seask8_1.jpg
bobcat
no carl the fucking architect sucks. fuck him. greedy ass bastard that didn’t listen to the people and tax payers of seattle.
BJJPDX/Tom
just looks basic. Nothing really stands out at all. Bland.
Fitz
Looks like a fun park. Why don’t you guys just go skate it?