Photo Credit: Stantec
Once relegated with the label of “alternative sports,” BMX tracks, trails, and skateparks have become a worldwide phenomenon. Today, some of these facilities even host major international and Olympic events, including UCI BMX World Championships and a World Cup Skateboarding competition.
More and more communities are embracing the idea of skateparks, as well as BMX tracks and trails. Not only are the sports themselves gaining popularity, but the opportunity they offer to flexibly and creatively repurpose previously underutilized or constrained sites is attractive. From a contaminated brownfield, a sharp-sloped ravine, and an unusable drainage ditch, to an abandoned middle-school stadium, action-sports parks offer a solution to challenging topography. The following case studies show how the very nature of action-sports’ park components are great solutions to provide underutilized sites with a second chance at life.
Contaminated Lot Turned Lynch Family Skate Park, Boston, Mass. Boston’s skateboarding community had long been without a real skatepark, and after more than a decade of raising money and public support, the project finally took shape. The real question was where to put it.