Material differences

Photo: Juhyun Baik

After more than two years of anticipation slowly turned into delays and speculation, bulldozers finally got moving two weeks ago on a patch of land under the I-94 overpass at Logan Boulevard that will become the Logan Square Skate Park, the city’s first covered public skate park. To the local skate community, however, this news wasn’t so much a cause for celebration as a cause for concern.

Skaters are upset that the design of the publicly funded park is composed entirely of prefabricated “modular” skate obstacles (e.g., ramps) temporarily attached to a flat base of concrete, instead of the more solid “poured” concrete obstacle design that is the standard at Chicago’s other major outdoor skate parks, Wilson (4800 N Lake Shore Dr) and Burnham (3400 S Lake Shore Dr). Skaters who have attended meetings with the Chicago Park District, which is overseeing the project, say their suggestions and concerns over the past three years have been ignored.

“Putting up modular skate ramps is like putting a Band-Aid over a bullet wound,” says Steven Snyder, a former pro skateboarder who designs skate parks and is seen as an elder statesman in the local skate community. “It’s only a temporary solution that will eventually become a big problem. Excuse my French, but make the shit out of concrete, or don’t make it at all.”

The CPD holds that the modular designs are cheaper than concrete—$500,000 for Logan Square (projected to be complete in late fall) versus the estimated $750,000 that it cost to build Burnham and Wilson. The CPD has said it may consider making Logan Square permanent at a later date if it proves to be popular and a good investment.

Local skater John Methvin, who has met with the CPD, says the city made the same promises about the modular Grant Park skate plaza, a street-style course that opened at Columbus Avenue and Balbo Drive two years ago. “It’s all plastic, and it’s melting,” Methvin says. “Plastic melts, and then it doesn’t grind well, so people aren’t using it. Of course, it’s not going to be popular. Instead, skaters are going to Wilson or Burnham, where there’s concrete,” he says. “The city should learn their lesson that temporary’s not going to work. We tried that. If you want to get maximum use, you have to go concrete all the way.”

The owner of skate shop Uprise, Uriah Ruta, says he’s surprised the city isn’t listening to skaters, especially after the great success of the Wilson Skate Park, which was a community effort. Ruta was part of an informal committee of local veteran skaters (which included Snyder) that the park district looked to for advice before bids were accepted from design companies. The city eventually chose SITE Design Group, a California company that specializes in skate-park planning. Reps from the company came to town and held community design workshops to hear skaters’ wish lists. “In designing a skate park, it’s very critical to involve the community,” says SITE Design director Brian Moore. “After all, they’re the ones who will be using it.”