SECOND COMMUNITY INPUT MEETING FOR DEL RIO SKATE GARDEN

The survey to decide on a final design concept for the Del Rio Skate Garden is currently open for members of the community to vote and provide additional feedback following the Design Input Meeting on Friday, June 21, 2024.

Members of the community gathered again at City Hall on June 21, 2024 for a second community input meeting on the proposed new skate park at its current location in Severiano Perez Park on De la Rosa Street. 

The Austin-based skate park planning and design company, Skate Ecosystems LLC, unveiled three potential design concepts to the public during their presentation, giving the community a first look at the designs they helped develop at the first input meeting back in April. The designs were developed, taking into account the input collected from city officials, committee members, and members of the community, their specific wants and needs, as well as measures such as conducting site analysis at the park to help mitigate some of the heat effects and weather conditions in the new layout. 

Skate Ecosystems Chief Design Officer, Shane Yee, shared the company’s overall vision for the project which will be called the “Del Rio Skate Garden”, one of the first sustainable skate gardens in the US, once completed. “We want to have this park be the most good for the most people, without making it too bland,” Yee shared. “Part of our goal is that we want to get more people into skating at a beginner level, while still making it optimal and high performance for the kids that are already good, to get really good." “That’s why this is such a complex process with so many factors,” he continued. 

All the potential designs were inspired by their conversations with the community and their own research on Del Rio. “The fun part about Del Rio was the context analysis, learning about the history, the water, you’ll see some elements in here like the fountains, that are unique to this specific area in the creation of the designs, “ Yee elaborated.

The design options presented included Option 1, a triangular design inspired by river deltas and US Air Force and Space Force logos.

Design Option #1 - inspired by river deltas and the US Air Force and Space Force logos, tailored to street-style skateboarding.

The second option, a squared “fountain in the desert” design, inspired by the Spanish-style architecture of many Del Rio buildings and neighborhoods, incorporated a formal garden and fountain in the center with skate paths and a skate plaza on the outside perimeter.

Design Option #2 - inspired by downtown Del Rio's Spanish-style architecture, creating a "fountain in the desert" skate garden with the skate plaza and paths around the perimeter.

The third option, is an infinity shaped skate park, inspired by space and big tech aesthetics, a unique pump track with street style features tailored to BMX riders as well as skateboarders.

Design Option #3 - inspired by Space and big tech aesthetics, a unique pump track with street style features.

After the design presentation, those in attendance were invited to complete the online survey, which will be available to the public on Connect Del Rio and the City of Del Rio’s respective social media platforms, for the next two weeks. The survey provides the public with the opportunity to view the design concepts and give written feedback on what they’d like to see more or less of in the final design. 

“I love this initiative that the city is taking and the partnership with the skaters, you can tell that they’ve taken their personal input and you can really see that in the designs,” Javier Herrera, a former casual skater and a current Principles of Audio Video Technology instructor at DRHS, told us about his excitement for this new park. “It’s accessible for high level skaters, for children and for people who just ride the board like myself.” “I’ll be out there a lot more now,” he added. Hererra and his son, Levi, 6, who has just begun learning the basics of skating and gaining more confidence on the board, leaned towards the first two designs, hoping that the two will be combined in some way as they both have features that appeal to skaters at all levels. 

“I really love design number two, it would put Del Rio on the map for its uniqueness,” Jose Miguel Flores of the Good Vibes Skate Shop and the monthly skate clinics, commented on his preferred design. “I’ve never seen any drawings for a skate park like this anywhere before,” Flores added. 

“The first design is perfect to me because the style that I like to skate is street, the second one was very appealing to the eye, but I think the people that really skate liked the first design because we will really learn and improve our skating style on that one,” Trey Elias, a 16-year old skater, told us about his preferred design. “ The first one really caught my eye and my friend’s eyes, right off the bat.” 

Once the survey closes and the community input is collected, Skate Ecosystems plans to finalize designs and construction documents with hopes to open the Del Rio Skate Garden by Halloween 2024. 

“There’s basically three objectives we’re hoping to hit with this skate garden: the first is to get more people into skateboarding and give them a place where they can hangout with people of all ages, making it a spot that somebody from say Austin, Corpus Christi, or say, Los Angeles would want to visit, and the third is making it something that is a landmark for Del Rio not only as a skate park, but architecturally,” Shane Yee told us about the goals that Skate Ecosystems would like to achieve with the completion of this park for themselves as a design firm and the community. 

Connect Del Rio will continue to follow this story and provide updates as they come. 

This journalist can be reached at alondra.sanchez@connectdelrio.com