The Boston Globe
Sports plus section
They've made finding some board room their business
By Tony Chamberlain, Globe Staff | April 8, 2005
When Nancy Schon, the sculptor famous for her "Make Way for
Ducklings" figures, heard that skateboarders were defacing
one of her works a few years ago, she became enraged.
The president of Friends of Copley Square called to tell her that
her sculpture, "The Tortoise and the Hare," was being
used by boarders for various percussive moves -- ollies and grinds.
"It made me mad as a hatter," she said.
So she went to Copley Square to admonish the kids bonking on her
sculpture, but her reaction surprised even her.
"I started talking to them and I found that they were intelligent,
nice kids," she said. "They're athletes who had nowhere
to go to participate in their sport."
Like many Bostonians who get annoyed by the noisy cavorting of
skateboarders on public ways, Schon quickly became a fan of the
1-acre, $2 million Charles River Skatepark taking shape in East
Cambridge on land made available by the Big Dig.
The park is a pet project of the Charles River Conservancy, a group
formed five years ago to protect and improve the riverside parklands
around Boston. CRC founder Renata von Tscharner said the project
has slowed some from its projected 2006 opening because of asbestos
removal in North Point Park, the Big Dig parcel.
But, according to von Tscharner, that only helps broaden the fund-raising
efforts and there's an outside chance the park still may be completed
by 2006. "Urban projects present a lot of complexity, and,
unfortunately, this problem is out of our hands."
Aside from boarders, skaters, and bikers, the park has a growing
number of fans and supporters, many of whom, like Schon, have a
high regard for the development of recreational park lands that
appeal to the young.
When Jody Stoddard and his wife, Christine Manning, who started
a BMX bike shop in Weymouth, got wind of the new park, they moved
the business to Cambridge, and have just placed their first order
for skateboards and parts.
"We're still a BMX bike shop," said Manning. "But
since we're just half a mile from the park, the [skateboard] parts
and decks will be part of our niche business."
Added Stoddard, who was a professional mountain biker: "As
soon as we heard that a skatepark was going to be built in East
Cambridge, we began looking at shop space in the neighborhood. We've
only been here for [a few] weeks and already our sales for the month
of March have doubled. The park isn't even built yet."
To von Tscharner, who moved to the United States from Switzerland
in 1978, skateboarding as a sport appeals because, "It reminds
me of dancing." But the development of the East Cambridge park
also works toward an ideal of "rich urban life" she has
seen in older cities, such as London and Bern, Switzerland, where
she worked as an architect and city planner.
"In very old cities where there are not big spaces used for
highways or large institutions, there is more integration in city
life where nature and sports come together," she said. "That's
what the park can accomplish."
It takes an imaginative eye to picture what the site will look
like. A rough riverfront section beneath the soaring Zakim Bridge
ramps, littered with piles of dirt, concrete barriers, and metal
pipes, Lot 29F (its designation) is far from appealing at the moment.
But to someone with von Tscharner's trained eye for the possible,
the wasteland is a canvas ready for an artist's touch.
Tennis courts, the 40,000-square-foot skatepark, and a dockside
facility are part of the mix. The intent is to make the river an
integral part of the park system, and open a part of the city few
have visited, let alone considered as recreation land.
"This is unknown territory for anybody," said von Tscharner.
"Most people know the Esplanade, but nobody has ever been down
here."
The skatepark will include bowls, pipes, streetscape, and the "Wave
Pipe" -- all designed for riders of skateboards, inline skates,
and BMX bikes to perform the tricks riders now do on objects on
city streets. But in Boston, anyone caught on these devices is fined
$100, basically shutting down the sport.
This -- along with the fact that some of her 11 grandchildren are
skateboarders -- was enough to get Schon involved in the struggle
to get what she calls a "world-class park" in Boston.
"These poor kids get such a bad rap," she said. "But
if you really watch them, you see how good and talented they are
as athletes. They need a place for themselves and what they do."
Skaters are mostly behind the park's creation, but some have expressed
reservations about other Boston cityscapes being put off-limits
once the park is done.
"We have places we like to go where there's nobody around
and we don't get in trouble," said 15-year-old Gerald McPeek,
who terms the park idea anywhere from "sick" to "awesome."
Just don't take away his Korean War Memorial grounds in Charlestown,
and other prized sites. "I hope just because they have a park
they won't kick us out of everywhere else."
To make sure the park reflects what the mostly young male skaters
are looking for, a number of public hearings have been held in the
design phase, in which skaters offer suggestions. So far, the design
models rendered have drawn the ultimate praise from McPeek.
"It looks sick," he said.
Through the summer, a number of Boston-area punk rock bands will
play concerts to raise skateboard funds, said Noah Stockman, a spokesman
for the Conservancy. And to encourage the fund-raising momentum,
an anonymous donor has pledged to quadruple all donations to the
park. "We really have a lot of momentum now, and this will
be a great facility for the city," said von Tscharner, who
has three children, ages 14, 20, and 23. "It just brings together
so many good elements and makes good use of the land. It'll be a
real bright spot in Boston."
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