Any serious skateboarder will tell you an Ollie is the most fundamental of all the skateboarding tricks.
Soon you can do one in Chicago’s Grant Park, which is considered the city’s front yard — right on the Lake Michigan waterfront and home to Millennium Park.
The Grant Park Advisory Council and Conservancy is building a grand skate park at the south end of the 319-acre green space. Yes, a skate park. A $2.5-million, 3-acre, plaza-style, skate and wheel park that will feature an array of design elements reflecting both the needs of skaters and BMX bikers, as well as the history of the site.
Why? Because “parks need to adapt to the city,” explains Bob O’Neill, president of the Grant Park Advisory Council and Conservancy, in Dwell. “I want to make sure this is a good example of public and private design. Good design and architecture is transformative. It can change behavior, and it’s important.”
Other elements the skate park will feature include a pedestrian bridge overlooking the park, railroad rails for skaters to use, skateable sculptures and a public amphitheater.
“It’s the biggest project for skating the city has taken on,” O’Neill points out in Dwell. “It’s been a big pipe dream to build this park.”
Editor’s note: This article was originally published in April 2014.
