City skatepark design finalized

Nothing but a handful of trees dot the landscape between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Schuylkill River today. In the future, however, the space will hold a stage, a tiered terrace and a river overlook as Philadelphia's newest skatepark.

After five years of ideas, discussions and planning, the Schuylkill River Skatepark is one large step closer to reality. The city's Fairmount Park Commission unanimously approved a final design yesterday.

"Now we are unfettered to move forward with our fundraising," said Josh Nims, who is leading the effort as executive director of the Franklin's Paine Skatepark Fund. "Obviously, I'm super-excited about that."

In the next few months, the group plans to finalize blueprints and secure sponsors for the $5 million project. If all goes smoothly, construction will begin next year.

Though the two-acre park comes with a hefty price tag, Nims said he is not too worried about finding the funds.

"Maybe I'm crazy, but I just never have been" worried, he said. "From the beginning, I started out with the belief that if we build it, they will come."

The push for a new skatepark first arose after the city banned skateboarding in public plazas in 2000, ending skateboarding in popular sites like Love Park. In 2001, Franklin's Paine partnered with the city to develop ideas for a new skateboarding site, and two years later, the Schuylkill River location was named.

"It's a real attempt and a real stretch for the city to really try to find a niche for this particular population segment," said Penn Urban Studies lecturer Michael Nairn, adding that skateboarders are "a population that often the city wishes would be neither seen nor heard from."

College senior Ethan Lipsitz, who has been skateboarding for a decade, said the skatepark is a great idea but fears that it will lead to further restrictions on urban skateboarders.

"I've had wonderful experiences exploring the city and going different places," he said. "I think [it] would be a shame to lose that as cities build more skateparks and crack down on that kind of free skateboarding."

In designing the park, advocates and architects worked to ensure its popular appeal by getting input from local skateboarders at 14 community meetings.

"There are a lot of things in this park that are designed to cater to every skateboarder in my mind," Nims said. However, "it's designed for what skateboarding is becoming, and not necessarily what it is right this second."

Some might complain that the park is tailored for street skateboarders, who prefer features like stairs and handrails, as opposed to transition skateboarders, who prefer sloped ramps and bowls. But Nims sees more and more Philadelphia skateboarders embracing both styles.

"They're comfortable skating a set of steps and a curb down the street from their house, but they're also comfortable going to FDR [Skatepark in South Philadelphia] and skating vertical bowls," he said.

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