When the Vancouver plaza was constructed in September 2004—designed and built by New Line Skateparks and co-designed by landscape architecture firm, van der Zalm + Associates—it quickly become a Vancouver street skating institution and a positive trend in North American skatepark development. The hassle-free nature of the plaza along with obstacles structurally influenced by the urban landscape provides a location for both individual skill and the skate community to thrive in and expand from.
"The Vancouver plaza idea was a good opportunity to show how simple and effective it can be, as well as a different approach to the under-viaduct or under-bridge skate parks, which were originally Burnside-style parks," says Kyle Dion, Director of Skatepark Development for New Line.
The plaza's triangular and central location at Quebec and Union Streets, under the Georgia / Dunsmuir Viaducts, serves as an ideal home—especially since the space's prior use was as a pay parking lot the public was reluctant to use due to the high volume of vehicle break-ins that occur in the immediate area. It also doesn't hurt that the plaza is close to the Main Street-Science World and Stadium-Chinatown SkyTrain stations, as well as 7-Eleven, Starbucks, and various food vendors.
These are the usual behavioral combos in which "...you hit the plaza" can be applied as a sentence ender:
- You're from St. Elsewhere, Canada (or another country) and you wanna link up with skate heads, so you hit the plaza.
- You're from the ‘burbs and you wanna go on a mission with your buds and take a break from the sticks, so...
- You just wanna skate granite ledges, a manny, some stairs, and flat, but you don't wanna deal with security, caps, or Joe public, so...
- You wanna witness some of Canada's most talented ams, so...
- It's sunny and there's a skate jam goin' on, so...
- You're a sponsored roller, and you're gonna meet up with a photographer or filmer to warm up for a street mission with a few homies, so...
The "We're gonna lose the plaza" rumour in Van
Kyle Dion: "The plaza has been permanent for about a year-and-a-half now. Initially when it was built, it was pitched as a temporary solution to see how it goes. There was a 2-year trial period to see if it would work out, and if there would be huge problems and opposition. There were also chunks of land along the waterfront nearby where the city was hoping to find a larger, more permanent place. But obviously none of the problems with the plaza materialized. With the Olympics coming to town, a lot of that land along the waterfront is being dedicated to Olympic developments, so it's no longer available. I believe it [the plaza] actually went back to council as a resolution to deem it as a permanent parks facility."
Geoff Dermer. Sequence: Dylan Doubt.
Dyrdek faces the facts
While most people saw Rob Dyrdek's plaza in Kettering, Ohio as the first in North America, the Vancouver plaza was actually built an entire year prior.
"Every time I go down to meet with Rob, it comes up and I bug him about it [laughs]. He knows that the Vancouver plaza was there a year before Ohio. We don't mind because of the marketing, the attention, and publicity that he brought to the skate plaza movement," explains Dion.
Dyrdek has been busy with TV, being a pro skater, and with his mandate to develop plazas in the US and beyond through his Rob Dyrdek / DC Shoes Skatepark Foundation, as well as his "Safe Spot Skate Spot" program that works towards providing simple, legal spot solutions in the LA area. The MTV star has also recently teamed up with New Line in these endeavours.
"Rob couldn't ignore the fact that he needed someone that could focus on this kind of stuff with all the other things he's got going on," says Dion. "He called me out of the blue one day, and I didn't believe it was him. But once I started talking to him for a few minutes, I realized he sounded rock-star so I knew it was him [laughs]. Rob showed us a plaza project on paper for New Mexico and asked what we could do with it. We took the architect's concept but fully overhauled it so every last piece of it would be skateable. Rob was stoked on that, and more projects kept coming at him, so he said, ‘Let's work together and get New Line designing all our plaza projects.' It's an amazing opportunity."
Vancouver Plaza Fact Sheet:
-20,600 square feet, centrally located, lit, and partially covered.
-North America's first designated skate plaza.
-Design input from downtown Vancouver skaters.
-Obstacles include: over a dozen granite and concrete ledges, a hubba, brick hip, banked wall, wheelchair ramps, flat bars, 2 Pier-7 style granite-topped manuals, long 3 and 4 stair sets, and standard 4 and 7 stair sets with rails.
Check out some footage from the Vancouver Plaza:
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Other In The Park columns:
The Tuff City Park, Tofino, BC
Vic West, Esquimalt, BC
The Schoolyard Park, Mapleridge, BC
Seylynn, Part 1: A Historical Glance
Seylynn, Part 2: The Bowl Series
The Michael Komenda Memorial Skatepark, Winnipeg, MB