dig it

Love your video and had me thinking about the public's perceived "problem" of Skateboarding VS Architecture. I live in Gainesville, Florida and like any town there is some problem with Graffiti. City had a problem on one large flat wall on 34th Street (major city road) and decided to take a different approach to the Perception of a problem. They let...no.... encouraged graffiti now on that wall and now it has turned into a favorite spot to share ideas, messages, etc. City even installed trash cans along the wall to pick up paint cans, etc. Its almost a rite of passage for students to come "paint the wall" at least once. As a side effect bonus there is no known graffiti problems anywhere else in the city, suddenly the problem is an asset for the town! What if public spaces were able to spin the negative of skateboarders to a positive and design a sub area just for skateboards, for others to watch/enjoy? Not how much would you pay the designers to keep them out...but what would you pay skateboarders to come each day to entertain?? (you build it, they will come for free of course and maybe protect the areas, or do something you could not pay for....to improve the space) Here is a link to our 34th street wall youtube.com/watch?v=LIAC9Iusfjk Tom Petty came to play recently back in his hometown of Gainesville and a nice welcome message was painted on it he could see as his tour bus drove in.... One of the things he remembers is that welcome message. Our little town is also home to Rodney Mullen the godfather of street skating. Kinda cool when a problem for a city turns into something special for it instead. Our little town spent millions on libraries and parks that are all but vacant and just recently a tiny little free skate area was set up on the edge of another park... I went buy yesterday and it was packed... 30+ kids. The swing sets and other areas of the park.... crickets.... just saying what if they were seen as an asset in public spaces.

Good stuff ~!!!

Hi there, can we share this video, or parts of it on our blog? PS, great work!

Great video! posted it up on our blog at welldressedvandals.com/blog/skateitecture

Great video, really enjoyed it. Skater from Australia and it was cool to see some of the things that have been in NZ to solve problems we all face. Nice doco!

Hey bro,

Awesome topic and it will be super interesting to hear the outcome, or at least the process of coming to a mutually beneficial agreement. We just wrote an article last issue about the same kind of thing, pagegangster.com/p/vqdGi/#page/18 but it seems that the council here is much more innovative and forward thinking when it comes to using skateboarders to develop projects. As we all know, contractors don't make good spots unless they're holding hands with skateboarders and skate-architects. One of the rad things they're doing is redesigning public spaces to be sick skate posts, while at the same time being interesting for all walks of life. I hope you cats can infiltrate the system and redesign the entire city from the inside.
Nice work on the cam too, tight!
Nick

Bloody good read bro, thanks for the link! Nice one, Nick...

Great vid, nice to see my town in an international light.

Attention skaters, BMXers, etc.; the public does not owe you shit just because you choose to do a certain activity. Be happy that you're getting a skate plaza, period.

This video comes off as a whole lot of whining about a very trivial "problem".

Someone complaining about getting the boot out of a public LIBRARY because it (to them) is built like a skate spot? Give me a break.

awesome respect

a lot of skateboarders should become architects, that would solve the problem completely!
Thanks for making this documentary!!!

A very interesting documentary, well done!

I have written short a piece about your film on Kaplank Kapow... have a gander.

kaplankkapow.com/2011/11/skateboarding-vs-architecture.html

great video :D

This documentary has hit a nerve with some of our readers after posting it on Kaplank Kapow... If you want to join in with the debate see the comments here - kaplankkapow.com/2011/11/skateboarding-vs-architecture.html

couldn`t watch it yet because I´m at work and I got no sound on this computer. but I´ll check it out at home and bet i love it :)

Love it! awesome work and solid ideas. Good shit!

Hey, this is absolutely awesome! This film is spot on. Very balanced perspectives, and very good possible solutions suggested. I've written up a little piece on this this in my blog. I've taken a screen shot from the video (credited), but let me know if this is a problem!

tom-payne.org/2011/12/28/skateboarding-vs-architecture/

you just made a film out of my diploma thesis in city geography, awesome work!