After considering input from Lincoln skateboarders, developers of the South Haymarket Skate Park have released preliminary draft designs of the forthcoming skater hub.
Entrance to “The Bay,” Lincoln’s indoor skate park and community hub, located on 20th and Y Street. (Chase Porter, KLIN News)
Vince Onel, Vice President of Development for the California-based skate park design company Spohn Ranch, came back for more Tuesday evening and fielded reactions to park mock-ups from more than 30 skaters in central Lincoln’s indoor skate park “The Bay.”
He began with a recap of some feedback his team gathered during a late January open house hosted in the same location.
This healthy mix of shredders is about 50/50 split on their preferred style of terrain, between street style (typically includes stairs, handrails, benches, and other architectural elements commonly found in urban landscapes) and transition style (halfpipes, ramps, bowls, and other curved surfaces designed for fluid movements and aerial tricks).
Attendees of the open house were able to vote for features they wanted to see implemented in the final design, the top four were: banks, ledges, rails, and transitions.
Additionally, Onel said he envisioned the park as a regional attraction, both by scale and quality of design. The first draft design prominently features a competition-level bowl and a beginner-friendly bowl, various stairs/ledges/pads, and a pump track (a path of banked turns and smooth bumps that riders can navigate without pedaling). Various other facility amenities include lighting, spectator seating, shade, and a drinking fountain.
See the bird’s-eye mock-up designs below.
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- Aerial view (looking north)
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- (looking east)
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- (looking south)
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- (looking west)
South of the park will be a public “splash pad” or “spray ground.”
The park will feature two different “bowls,” one for beginners and one for more advanced riders.
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- Beginners bowl
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- Advanced bowl
Inspiring creative tricks from skaters, the forthcoming park will include various sculpture elements. Onel specifically wanted feedback on the abstract geometric structure featured in the eastern corner of the park (pictured below). Similar structures are popular in other urban skate-environments.
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- Close up on facility corner
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- Sculpture design (alternative design pending)
Proper skate park “flow,” the amount of skaters who could utilize the park at one time, was a key design feature for Onel.
Derek Driver, a veteran Lincoln skater with 20+ years of experience, approved.
“It looks like it has good flow,” said Driver. “Vince has really considered a lot of stuff when he designed it. It hits a lot of the criteria.”
Driver added that he preferred a more advanced version of the beginner bowl but appreciated the accessibility of the new park for “newbies.”
Onel polled skaters in attendance on a couple alternative designs. He will take feedback gathered from thrashers and make tweaks for the final draft creation, which will be presented at a future date.
“For me, it’s all about the bowls,” Driver said, adding that bowls and ledges of this caliber will be new to Lincoln’s skate-scene.
“It’s like the one thing Lincoln’s never really, any kind of bowled corners in any of the skate parks,” he explained. “That’s going to be the biggest change as far as what’s available… Peter Pan doesn’t have a single ledge or rail, so the street skaters are going to be way happier having these obstacles.”
Metal archway sign, currently reading “Lincoln Wheels Park” (name still pending).
Ground is set to break on the South Haymarket Skate Park in 2025.
While Spohn Ranch is working the park’s designs, at this time, the contractor who will build the park has not been selected. Onel made clear that whoever is selected will be experienced.
“We’re not going to allow any random curb-and-gutter contractor to build this park, just because they know concrete. They will need to understand all the little nuanced details of a skate park,” Onel said, adding Spohn Ranch will be submitting a bid to build the park.
Skaters unable to attend can still provide feedback here.