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Skatepark Progress Page
Thursday, September 6, 2007
This is our attempt at covering the progress of new parks being built on the island of Oahu. Most of these parks were promised by Mayor Jeremy Harris while others (actually, just one other) is being built on the Hickam Air Force Base. All information provided below is to our best knowledge of what's happening, but by no means are we an 'official' source of such information. Got something to say? - Say it in the Forums.
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Hauula
DELAYED??!!
Contractor: TBA
Skatepark Builder: TBA
Funding: $249,000
Phone: TBA
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A smaller budget than the other skateparks - Hauula was looking at a park slightly smaller than 5,000 sq/feet. From preliminary designs the layout, while small, was nothing short of amazing - yep it was almost Hawaii's first cradle! Well-designed and very efficient use of space could have made Hauula Skatepark one of the best. While the park is not officially "canceled", the skatpark WILL NOT BE BUILT at it's original location.
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Banzai (Sunset Beach)
Contractor: PER Inc.
Skatepark Builder: Dreamland Skateparks California Skateparks
Funding: TBA
Phone: TBA
Construction start date: 2006
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Groundbreaking Ceremony with Councilman Donovan Dela Cruz and Skills Johnson.
Against overwhelming support from the skateboard community, PER Inc. has managed to drop their contract with Dreamland Skateparks and is instead building their own 'inhouse' skatepark design with California Skateparks. This change was not without controversy and the skateboarders protested.
See:
Banzai Protest - Part 1 then Banzai Protest - Part 2
Forums: North Shore Gets A Piece Of Crap Park!
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INFO BELOW IS NO LONGER PERTINENT TO THE BANZAI SKATEPARK
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This is the best news we've heard in a long time. The City has chosen the legendary Dreamland Skateparks for this design/build project on our island! For those unaware, this is a first for Hawaii's skateparks and by going the design/build route, this will ensure higher efficiency and more freedom and creativity when the perfecting the design - all within the same cost frame as the other parks. The media buzz generated from the world-class facility at Banzai has more and more communities supporting world-class facilities in their neighborhood. Though, keep up on those neighborhood board meetings, and keep sending messages to the Mayor, as construction start dates have yet to be announced!
From what we understand, the final design for Banzai is rumored to be a bit reminiscent of the now legendary Burnside Skatepark in Portland Oregon. With such an impressive resume, Dreamland Skateparks is sure to grace our islands with truly world-class skateparks. Congratulations to the North Shore and Waipahu communities for seeking out the best skatepark builders in the world. These parks will set a new precedence for all skateparks to follow.
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Kapolei
Contractor: Ralph S. Inouye Co., Ltd.
Skatepark Builder: Wormhoudt Inc.
Size: 7,000 square feet
Funding: $760,000
Completion date: October 2, 2006
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The Kapolei Skatepark sets a new standard for Oahu's skateparks. 5,000 square feet of three completly different enclosed bowls (keyhole, amoeba and egg) and 2,000 square feet of street. With all bowls topped with penrose pool coping, the Kapolei skatepark can only be described as "action packed".
Contractor Ralph S. Inouye, skatepark builder Wormhoudt Inc. and City Councilmembers Mike Gabbard and Nestor Garcia should be congratulated for fast-tracking this third design/build project through! From ground breaking to completion this park took just over 2 months to complete. Expect great things from Kapolei, as 'the second city' has gone big and world-class on this one! Not even a month after the opening, the Kapolei locals are quickly warming up to fast speed lines. We are too excited about this park and can't believe it's on our island. We are simply spending all our free time skating it and not writing enough about it.
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Manana (Pearl City)
Contractor: PER, Inc.
Skatepark Builder: California Skateparks
Architect: Urban Works
Funding: ?
Completion date: November 27, 2004
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Following the trail set by Kamiloiki, mainland skatepark construction company California Skateparks has been hired to build this park - this is a giant leap forward towards better parks in Hawaii. Unfortunately, there are some limitations to the design both in height and drainage limitations. The majority of the park is roughly 5' high, and with no drains located within the park the design is hampered. Proper drainage placement would allow for enclosed bowls within the park, improving flow, and allowing more users to ride the park at the same time.
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Kahuku District Park
Funding: $19,000.00 (just for the obstacles)
Phone: ?
Completion date: March 2003
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I don't believe this park is one of the parks proposed by the mayor, rather this park has been partially funded by HMSA insurance company. Kahuku follows the footsteps of Wahiawa and gets modular prefabricated Skatewave obstacles. Made by playground equipment companies, these obstacles severely fail to attract users and are often left unused. Building unchallenging and uncreative pre-fabricated obstacles, companies like Skatewave are quick to cash in on the 'skatepark bandwagon' and are completely out of touch with the long-term needs of the skateboard community. Six months following the initial installation of the obstacles, we have received reports that the $500 adjustable bench (letter "C") has been already been dismantled and removed due to poor construction and damage.
Prevent the Skatewave tragedy in your neighborhood!
The Wahiawa scenario above was $24,500 and that was a deal according to this price list. While some may enjoy these temporary obstacles, don't be misled to think that they are a more economical solution. The small town of Donald Oregon has wisely spent their funds and constructed a permanent concrete skatepark for a grand total of $35,000.00 - keep in mind that this total includes everything - labor, design, and materials.
(1) Ribs near complete, almost ready for a first layer of plywood. (2) 6' high hip.
Check out the escalating 9' corner on the far backwall - it has 1' of vert.
This mini-bowl may seem a bit out of place in this 'progress page' since it is a project taken on by skateboarders, and not built by city hired construction crews. But nevertheless, it's something new that's being built on Oahu and it deserves the attention. It's a basic boomerang bowl ramp with some not-so-ordinary capsuled ends and escalators ranging from 6' to 9'. With pool coping on the 8.5' extension opposite the hip. This 'mini bowl' is full of speed lines and will be a great compliment to the Original Bowl Ramp. The project was completed October 23 2002 - just in time for the annual Halloween Bowl Bash Contest. As of late November the pool coping has been added to the extension of this beauty.
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Kaneohe District Park
Contractor: ?
Architect: Bryce E. Uyehara, A1A
Funding: $226,000.00
Phone: 527-6642
Completion date: September 28 2002
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Blueprint - Not Available
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Don't know too much about this one other than the fact it is considered a to be a smaller park. Looks like a 3' funbox and 5' hip layout surrounded by a bunch of ledges. From the reports we're getting it seems it isn't even worth a 5 minute drive to check out. Reports of poor flow and bad design put this park on the 'don't even bother' list. From what we understand, you can't even ride the 5' hip without running directly into a nearby ledge??!
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Kamiloiki Community Park
Contractor: PER, Inc.
Skatepark Builder: California Skateparks
Architect: Group 70 International, Inc.
Total Funding: $1,000,000.00
Skatepark: $450,000.00
Roller Hockey Rink: $550,000.00
Phone: 808-523-5866
Completion date: September 14 2002
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(1) This 5' ledge is as steep as the bank??? (2) How about bowling this in?
'Dead-End' wall on the left has been resolved! Also notice the modified pyramid.
This is a 2-part project. Plans are to build both a roller hockey rink and a skateboard park. Funds are roughly split down the middle even though skatepark usage is higher. Skateboarders and rollerbladers both use a skatepark, while only rollerbladers will be allowed to use the hockey rink - not to mention the rink will only be open a couple of times a week for 'organized' league play. Well, that's a whole different issue altogether. Anyway, the main thing is that as of 11/14/01 the ground has been broken and construction has begun! PER, Inc. has started to form the park now that the Millilani park has been completed. In order to address concerns from skateboarders, the lower section has been raised a foot higher, a 'dead-end' wall has been bowled in, and the 'downhill slope' has been reduced to allow for better 'traffic' flow. Why is there a 'downhill slope' in the first place? Well, it's because contrary to what is being done in the rest of the world - Hawaii's skateparks cannot have drains in the middle of the park, so that our parks must drain downhill!!?? Unfortunately this drainage limitation hampers design and leaves all of the similarly shaped square mini-ramp bowls open on one side.
Local contractor PER inc. has teamed up with the City to hire California Skateparks on the Kamiloiki Skatepark Project. While Dreamland Skateparks is by far the best choice (in terms of cost and quality) for mainland design/build crew, the local contractor and mainland skatepark crew collaboration on these projects is a much needed step towards better parks in Hawaii. Thanks to all who are voicing their concerns on our parks and the need for experienced collaboration - you have made an impact and the City appears to be listening. Keep up the good work - we will eventually get world-class / well-built parks here in Hawaii!
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Millilani District Park
Contractor: PER, Inc.
Architect: Architects Pacific, Inc.
Funding: $453,000.00
Phone: 808-527-6330
Official opening day: February 16, 2002
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(left) Slam-City Jam ledges. (right) 4 foot mini-bowl, so lumpy that it's useless.
The first park on Oahu to be built without wooden molds! As you know skateboard park construction more closely resembles swimming pool construction. Contractor PER, Inc. is to be congratulated for doing research on what has been built outside of Hawaii to learn about skatepark construction. Notice the use of wooden templates and rebar. Well, unfortunately, there is only so much that you can read about before jumping in to build a park and what it really comes down to is experience. Inexperienced contractors, lacking skateboard knowledge, and working with concrete and gunnite for the very first time will find it very difficult to produce a quality skateable-skatepark. This lack of experience is felt as you roll through the many lumps in this park - and at $453K, it sure hurts - ouch!
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Keolu Hills Neighborhood Park
Contractor: Alan Shintani, Inc.
Architect: Kodama/Okamoto Architects, Inc.
Funding: $647,815.00
Phone: 808-523-4736
Official opening day: February 23, 2002
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(1) A very unique spine-slug deal (2) Whoops, what happened to the coping!
A fairly promising design which probably looked better on paper than an overly crowded park full of kids. Believe it or not, at a mere 15,000 square feet, this is the largest public skatepark on Oahu to date. The transitions were formed using solid concrete - this is a first. Some sections are about 6' high. The concrete work is lumpy but a bit more true to radius than Millilani. Not much carving will be going on in these open U-shaped bowls, the flow is more of a hip-transfer crash course layout. Drains in these parks would allow obstacles to be enclosed and collisions into other skaters would be minimized. Why do all the parks in Hawaii to date have such a rough finish? Obviously, the contractors have not figured out how, or that, everything should be highly wet-polished like a smooth parking garage. Keolu is a first for Oahu, with rounded capsuled bowls and organic slug-shaped obstacles. After a nice rainy day the 'uphill' capsule fills with foot or two of water - displaying the shoddy craftsmanship of the park.
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Aala Park
Contractor: Haron Construction
Civil Engineer: Randal Furumoto & Associates
Funding: ?
Phone: ?
Official opening day: March 23, 2002
Related Link:
SkateMap: Aala Park
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(1) Curved bench mold. (2) ledges running into each other? (3) will this fall apart?
Throughout this renovation of Aala Park, the classic 'roller-rink' over-vert bowled walls will remain intact. While I understand the 'novelty' in keeping with the original design (which some from the 70's would argue was flawed from the beginning), I must point out that the actual original design didn't even have the past vert section at all. That said, and not knowing what construction limitations may exist, I would rather have seen just a section of the over-vert wall remain intact, with a modern reconstruction around the entire perimeter of the park. As it is now, the original walls are perhaps a bit too mellow to get enough speed to ride the 'inner plaza' area. The 'plaza' consists of many similar banks, ledges, and rails. Everything new is less than 4' in height and replaces the original 'black asphalt' area. Construction quality like the rest of Hawaii's parks is sub-par. Fortunately, because the renovations are for small obstacles and banks, the lumpiness is more of an annoyance than something that makes it dangerous to ride. There have been reports that the park is chipping away where the new renovations meet the 'old park' transitions. On a positive note, this is the only public park on the island fully lit till 9pm every day of the week.
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Haleiwa (Beach Park)
CANCELED!!
Contractor: TBA
Architect: TBA
Funding: TBA
Phone: TBA
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Back to the chopping block. This park was originally awarded back in 2000, but for unknown reasons the park has been canceled.
Other parks which have been canceled due to severe budget cuts are:
Waipahu District Park - CANCELED!
Waipio District Park - CANCELED!
Koko Head District Park - CANCELED!
Kalihi District Park - CANCELED!
Central Oahu Regional Park - CANCELED!
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