Photo Credit: Charleston County Parks
The skateboarding community of Charleston, S.C., had been advocating for a regional-sized skate park for decades. With few other skate parks available in the Lowcountry and new laws prohibiting skateboarding on the streets of downtown, skateboarders had limited places to ride. In 2011, The Charleston County Park and Recreation Commission (CCPRC) took the first steps toward making area skateboarders’ dreams a reality.
CCPRC manages more than 11,000 acres of parks across the county. Providing fun and varied recreation sites for the community was not a new task for this agency. So why take on a skate park? One of CCPRC’s core values is to foster diverse populations of vendors, employees, and customers. Additionally, as a special-purpose district, CCPRC provides services that are outside the scope of other area municipalities, making this agency the logical choice for such a large-scale project. This project offered an opportunity for CCPRC to expand its park system and to cultivate a new customer base.
After announcing the project to the public, CCPRC began a highly competitive search for design and construction firms to assist. Hightower Construction was chosen as the lead construction firm, along with a number of consultants and sub-contractors to address the difficulties of construction on the coast. World-renowned skate-park design experts Team Pain Skate Parks was selected to design the skate-able elements. SGA Architecture, AECOM, and Terracon were also contracted to supplement the design and construction.