unloved spaces
You see those signs everywhere, the silhouette of a skateboarder with the red slash through it. I always thought that was off because they tend to gravitae to spots no one else thought to use. And then what happens, once people start seeing life in a new place they start getting pulled there too. Until it hits a critical mass of course when the skateboarders are chased away to the next place. If there isn't a college course in urban studies that looks at skateboarders maybe there should be.
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Dude! I don't know about a course, but there's an excellent, accessible book about this entitled Skateboarding, Space and the City: Architecture and the Body.
ReplyDeleteBut wait, there's more! Look up the history of LOVE Park in Philly -- the brainchild of Edmund Bacon, it wasn't a very successful [as in, didn't get much use] public plaza until the skaters took over and it became one of the most famous skate spots in the US, if not the world. There's a bit about it here, including a kick-ass photo of 92-year old Bacon on a skateboard. He and I are two of the very few people who attended both Cornell and Cranbrook and, since he is Kevin Bacon's father, how many degrees away from Kevin Bacon am I?
Yeah so ah, that's my thesis and the background for PlayPhilly/PlayCincy. You can check it out here or I can lend you my softcover http://issuu.com/mid_uarts/docs/playphilly
ReplyDeleteEd Bacons designs should be noted as complete failures though in terms of urban design, and living in Philly during the "skate wars" I can say I have seen both perspectives, but neither side was really correct (a true war). Look up William Whites studies on NYC sidewalks from the 70s, should be on YouTube. I had an interesting theory last night that while we strive to "innovate" to make us more efficient/we fail at most basic common sense, and..well this could go into a complete rant, but cities are trying to hard, or did and put form over function. This city however might be putting too much function over form, and unfortunately will create some havoc in sight lines and such..meh, we need some architecture critics up in this piece.
Who was that that said its had to design a bad public space so its surprising how often its done?
DeleteThe World Choir Game organizers took over and blocked off Shapes Park for an entire summer which I thought was a real dick move.
but in regards to the original comment, skateboarders don't technically bring new life to the space, meaning, they bring OTHER skateboarders, not local community. Technically. Which was the basis for the Philly skate wars.
ReplyDeletealso, it should be noted that LOVE park and the plaza across the way in from tot City Hall in Philly were shit holes up until recently. Philly dropped about $90 million to turn city halls plaza into this http://www.ccdparks.org/dilworth-park
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