For the past year and a half, three Rural Studio thesis students have been constructing a hybrid soccer/football field, new parking and a skatepark organized around a common public space better know as the Great Lawn. The community’s desire for a skatepark led to the application and reception of a $25,000 grant from the Tony Hawk Foundation. To stretch these generous resourses to their maximum, and integrate these typically urban elements into the rural landscape, the students proposed using landforms to soften the park and reduce construction cost. The driving concept behind the skatepark design has been to use concrete as a thin shell…doing so enables the slab to be manipulated by the land beneath it….aesthetically this has allowed them to play with the typical perception of concrete as a mass while also providing different riding experiences for the skaters. From a pragmatic standpoint, much less concrete has been used than in a typical skatepark, but a significantly larger and more complex series of runs have been developed. Recognizing that typical skatepark elements are clones of an urban landscape, the design attempts to push the banal rail and ledge condition into something more sculptural; doing so allows the space to be seen not only as a skatepark but simultaneously as a sculptural piece of the rural environment.

This week the team is finishing up laying sod, welding up the rails, and making the second-to-last concrete pour. Opening day for the park is just a couple of weeks away on Saturday April 10th – come out if you can!