Introduction
The available site is somewhat unusual in shape, being a long and narrow 60m by 17.5m. This being the case, the decision was made to build three different areas into the park, each of which would blend into the next. The three areas will each be geared towards a different type of skating:
- "Plaza" or "Real Street" area (by the entrance). This first area will attempt to replicate obstacles found on the streets, using real street furniture (curbs, benches, handrails) etc.
- "Park" area (centre). This central zone will contain more transitioned terrain, comprising of "traditional" skatepark obstacles, such as quaterpipes, funboxes, flatbanks etc.
- "Bowl and Ramp" area (far end). This area will contain one or more miniramps (halfpipes) and hopefully a bowl.
Obviously, the area isn't big enough to contain every possible obstacle that everyone will want. However, by having these three broad areas, we hope that we can have something for every user's tastes, rather than making a purely bowled park (which would alienate the street skaters/riders), or a purely street park, which would be of no interest to the transition riders.
Materials Choice
It is generally considered that concrete is the best choice for an outdoor park. This is for a number of reasons, some of which are below:
- Hard-wearing: Concrete is far more hard-wearing than wood, skatelite or other materials, and is far more resistant to use, vandalism, fire, weather, etc. Thus, although more expensive than other options initially, it needs practically no maintainance once built. Several concrete parks are still going strong after around 20-30 years of use (for example, Romford, livingstone)
- Noise: Skating concrete ramps makes less noise than does a framed ramp. This is because there is no void below the ramp to act as a resonance chamber - a problem which is most noticable in metal ramps.
- Surface: A concrete surface can be made very smooth, with no edges to stick up, catch wheels, or splinter. This makes it very safe when compared with other materials, particularly metal. It also drys out quickly after rain.
With this in mind, we would like to build as much of the park as possible in concrete. Obviously, it being the most costly surface, other materials may have to be considered for parts of the park. For example, it may be that the plaza section is surfaced in tarmac, or that the funboxes in the central section are made of skatelite-covered frames.
Designs Gallery
This section will hold various images and drawings as the designs progress. If you wish to have your say on the designs, feel free to use the forum.
Click on the links below to go to each section
-
Draft 1 (July 2004) - A 3D rendering based on the initial concept.
This is an early draft of the "3 area" concept discussed above. It is an evolution of an early set of four concept drawings, and was shown at the meeting on the 4th August 2004.
-
Draft 3 (August 2004) - Preview
A preview of draft 3. This contains early images, proper document to follow. Basically, this is a further evolution of draft 1, with more attention paid to the plaza section, and the health and safety rules applied.
-
Draft 3 (September 2004) - Actual
The actual 3rd draft. There is a slight re-arranging of the obstacles seen in draft 1. The bowl has been rotated through 90 degrees, and the linked mini ramps have been moved as a result of this. This was done to address a couple of problems in the early version of Draft 3.
-
Improved renderings of draft 3. There have also been a few minor tweaks to some of the obstacles.
-
Renderings of the design as submitted for the planning application
Just a couple of pics. They show the minor changes which were made to Draft 3 immediately prior to it being submitted for planning permission.
-
Renderings showing detail modifications to the previous design.
Since the planning application, a few details have been finished off. The mini ramp section has been reorganised to get a better use of the whole space, and the blocks on the plaza section have been finalised.