Charles River Skatepark designer Zach Wormhoudt to speak at BPL

Cambridge, MA—The Charles River Conservancy is hosting a public skatepark event on Sunday, May 20th from 3:00PM to 5:00PM in the Mezzanine Room at the Copley Square Boston Public Library. All skateboarders, in-line skaters, BMX bikers, parents, grandparents, and interested members of the community are invited to attend and hear the presentation by renowned skatepark designer and long-time skater Zach Wormhoudt, from Santa Cruz, CA.

Zach Wormhoudt will show examples of skateparks from across the world and will also discuss the tailored design of the Charles River Skatepark, which incorporates the input of hundreds of skaters and includes elements from Greater Boston's streetscapes. State Senator Jarrett Barrios will give opening remarks. Skateboarder and Reverend Richard Malmberg, public art sculptor Nancy Schˆn, and Charles River Conservancy president Renata von Tscharner will also speak. Following the presentations, there will be a structured discussion inviting comments and suggestions for skatepark design, marketing, outreach, programming, and fundraising. After the event, skaters are invited to informally meet and speak with Zach Wormhoudt at Vox Populi.

“The Charles River Skatepark is such a unique and exciting project,” said Renata von Tscharner, president of the Charles River Conservancy. “From an urban perspective, I think it is the perfect location: it is near the T, on the water's edge, surrounded by parks and yet in the middle of the city.” Formerly, the site of the skatepark was part of an industrial wasteland where glass factories, slaughterhouses and rail yards left behind about 40 acres of abandoned riverfront land. As part of the Big Dig mitigation efforts, this ‘waste’ space is now being transformed into beautiful parklands and in the midst will be the skatepark becoming a safe and active space for local youth to enjoy and for tourists to visit.

The skatepark site has recently been cleared of the soil piles and construction equipment and the adjacent Northpoint Parklands will soon be open. "All of this new construction needs a focal point, a place of beauty and excitement where people can gather and community can be formed," said Senator Jarrett Barrios. "The skatepark proposed by the Charles River Conservancy will provide such a focus."

This skatepark event at the Boston Public Library will offer a forum to exchange ideas regarding the community benefits of such a facility. According to skateboarder and Reverend Richard Malmberg "...skate parks embody a lesson the wider society would do well to learn. It does not take a much closer look to see that there is incredible skill, dedication and discipline as well as a cooperative ethic at work at every skate park."

Charles River Skatepark Background

The Charles River Skatepark is a major part of the Conservancy's efforts to make the parklands more active and accessible. At 40,000 square-feet, the Charles River Skatepark will be one of the largest and most innovative facilities of its kind in the East. It will be tailored to athletes of different skill levels and will serve as a venue for extreme sports competitions, after-school lessons, summer and year-round camps, and an active civic youth council. The Charles River Skatepark will accommodate skateboarders, inline skaters, and BMX bikers, resulting in a much-needed facility for greater Boston's youth. It will be located under the ramps of the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge and will be free of charge, open 24 hours and easily accessible via public transportation.

The Charles River Skatepark is a public/private collaboration with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority, the Department of Conservation and Recreation and the Conservancy. To date, the CRC has raised over half of the project's $2.3 million total cost. Donors include the State of Massachusetts, the Boston Redevelopment Authority, the City of Cambridge, the Peter and Carolyn Lynch Foundation, the Herman and Frieda Miller Foundation, the Boston Bruins Foundation, corporations, and hundreds of individual donors.

Presenter Biographies

Zachary Wormhoudt
Zach Wormhoudt is a skateboarder and skatepark designer who has built over 80 skate and bike park facilities that are in use throughout the world and in a variety of climates. He is best known for the Louisville, Kentucky Extreme Park and X-Park, which is currently approaching completion in Benicia, CA. His firm, Wormhoudt Inc., is committed to employing a collaborative community skatepark design process that reflects the needs of skaters. Zach is an avid skater himself and his goal is to create a skatepark that incorporates local elements, reflects the wishes of local skaters, and creates a sense of ownership. With respect to the Charles River Skatepark, Zach extensively reached out to local skaters and solicited their input and the skaters equally made extensive use of the opportunity to communicate with this experienced designer.

Senator Jarrett T. Barrios
Senator Barrios is a state senator with a Democrat affiliation who represents Middlesex, Suffolk, and Essex Districts. Senator Barrios has been a strong advocate of both the Charles River Conservancy and the Charles River Skatepark. He has publicly proclaimed his support for the skatepark project, thus helping the Conservancy leverage additional funding for the Charles River Skatepark.

Reverend Richard Malmberg
Reverend Malmberg of The Second Church of Newton in West Newton, MA. skateboards with his two sons, Max and Oscar, and has publicly shared a sermon relating to his experiences with skateboarding, his children and the skatepark in Waltham, MA. According to Malmberg, "skating with my two sons has given me a really nice opportunity to bond with them around something that is theirs. I take pride in their developing skills, and enjoy giving them a chance to teach me."

Nancy Schön
Nancy, the grandmother of the Charles River Skatepark and a renowned public art sculptor most notably for Make Way for Ducklings in The Public Garden and the Tortoise and the Hare in Copley Square, inadvertently became involved with the Charles River Skatepark. Shortly after she created the Tortoise and the Hare, she discovered local skateboarders doing tricks and practicing on her sculpture. Although she was initially enraged, after speaking to the skaters she came to realize that they were great kids who simply had no legal place to skate. At that moment, Nancy Schön became a skatepark advocate. In 2003, when Nancy heard of the CRC’s effort to build a skatepark, she joined the effort and has worked tirelessly ever since.

Renata von Tscharner
Renata is the president and founder of the Charles River Conservancy. Prior to the establishment of the CRC, Renata von Tscharner and her students at Harvard’s Radcliffe Seminars Landscape Program designed a skatepark under the Zakim Bunker Hill Bridge. In 2000, Renata founded the CRC and immediately explored whether this idea could be realized. As the mother of a skateboarder and as an advocate for the stewardship and renewal of the Charles River Parklands, she recognized that a skatepark along the river was a great way to bring athletes and spectators to the river and parklands.

The Charles River Conservancy

The Charles River Conservancy was founded in 2000 to provide stewardship and renewal to the 500 acres of state-owned Charles River Parklands from the Boston Harbor to the Watertown Dam. The Charles River Skatepark is one of several efforts of the Charles River Conservancy to make the parklands more attractive, active, and accessible to all. Other programs and projects include Conservancy Volunteers, Service Learning, Swimmable Charles Initiative, Bridge Illuminations, and RiverSing. Additionally, the Conservancy is a public-interest organization that pursues ongoing advocacy efforts that include increasing state funding for parklands, leveraging pathway improvements, and securing parkway preservation. The Conservancy’s website is www.thecharles.org

Contact information

Zachary Wormhoudt
831-426-8424
admin@skateparks.com

Senator Jarrett Barrios
JBarrios@senate.state.ma.us

Nancy Schön
617-969-4729
nancy@schon.com

Richard Malmberg
617-244-2690
REMalmberg@aol.com