Progress report on the Eugene, Oregon skatepark from the Register Guard.

Aside from the top photo of the faux brickwork from Jesse McDowell, the rest of these photos are from the Washington Jefferson Skatepark of Eugene Instagram feed. – Thanks to Sarib for the tip.

This is snake run is the first pour from Dreamland Skateparks at work in Eugene, Oregon. I’m not exactly sure if the entire park is already funded, but Skaters for Eugene Skateparks managed to raise $57,000, and look, work has begun! Additional shot after the jump. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the pics.

Well, the skatepark isn’t quite funded yet, but the web site is up.

In some sort of bizarre twist of fate, the city of Eugene, Oregon found itself with a giant surplus of cash and decided to fund floundering skatepark efforts. Sk8Eugene had this to say: In a monumental unanimous decision, the Eugene City Council today voted 8-0 in favor of endorsing the Eugene Parks Department’s recent proposal to allocate additional SDC (Systems Development Charge) funds for the development and construction of the WJ Skatepark in order to begin construction of the ENTIRE proposed skatepark in 2013. Just as importantly, the Parks proposal does not require additional private fundraising for near term ongoing maintenance. Although a continued capital private fundraising campaign will be necessary and ongoing, the Eugene Parks Foundation has stepped up to spearhead these additional private fundraising efforts. Those giant pylons in the design sketch above are actually piers supporting an overhead highway. Fly-throughs of the proposed Dreamland park design can be found here. – Thanks to Sarib and Andrew for the tip.

From Skaters for Eugene Skateparks: Here it is amigos. With your input, Dreamland has narrowed the field to one design. HOWEVER, this is not the final word. It is time to tell them what you think. Join us at the next public design forum presentation next Wednesday, January 13t at 6:00 p.m. at the Library. Check out the design renderings and video fly throughs at SkateEugene.org. – Thanks to Chad and Sarib for the tip.

Skaters for Eugene Skateparks has posted three video fly-throughs of revised design concepts, as well as some still renders. There’s also a feedback form which is accepting comments until November 22nd. They want this to be a destination park, so… feel free to comment, but maybe you could tip them off if you’re not a resident. The videos really help give you a better feel for the design. For instance, I was more likely to vote in favor of the weird flower bowl until I saw the way the outer walls were considerably higher than the inner ones. The video really helped see how it might ride out better than just viewing the overhead view. Fly-throughs should be mandatory for all skatepark proposals. I imagine in the not too distant feature we will be embedding the models in web pages directly, allowing users to drag the point of view wherever they want. Check it out.. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the tip.

There was another meeting in Eugene Oregon to go over some design revisions. You may recall there were three previous contenders. Apparently Dreamland took a lot of heat for the duck and dinosaur sculptures in the public commentary. Mark Scott read some them aloud, to the enjoyment of everyone attending. I can’t believe that I talk to the guy who does these renders several times a week and still I’m posting scans of printouts handed out at the meeting. – Thanks to Sarib Khalsa for the tip.

Three Dreamland design concepts have been unveiled for the newest Eugene, Oregon skatepark. One looks pretty straightforward, while the other two have unusual elements either in the park design or some strange sculptural elements. I’m not sure what’s going on there with the giant duck and the prehistoric swimming dinosaur. A dino-duck? College mascot homage? The intersting thing is that most of the square footage is covered by a bridge. You can find some background information, download some pdf’s of the layouts and take a survey on the designs at Downtown Eugene KVAL. If you just want to see the designs then stick around after the jump. I’ve also doctored up some overlays that do a better job of showing you what part is covered.

The six companies bidding on Eugene, Oregon’s “destination” skatepark have been whittled down to two, Dreamland and Grindline, according to our source at Spohn Ranch, of all places. The field used to contain American Ramp Company, California Skateparks, Pillar Design Studios and Spohn Ranch. Did you know that “skate park work is specialized?” Well apparently I did, because they asked me a bunch of questions for the Daily Journal of Commerce. One of the many things they left out of the article was the notion that 18,000 square feet isn’t really large enough to be considered a destination park. That’s about two thirds of the size of Newberg, or Orcas Island if anyone is counting. In any case, the project should break ground some time in 2010 if all goes well, but i don’t think they’ve raise all the money yet, so we’ll have to see how that goes. – Thanks to Hays Hitzing for the tip.