Comments on Arlington park shows that skaters can share public space - Greater Greater Washington

Comment by Angela Adams

Sat, 03 Dec 2011 13:52:45 EDT

Public artist Jann Rosen Queralt should be credited as a member of the design team, along with Kerns Group and Oculus, for creating the award winning design features of the park.

For more information about Jann and Arlington County's public art program, check out the Public Art page on www.arlingtonarts.org.

Comment by JP

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:46:47 EDT

California Skateparks did a great job with the concrete work. All in all, it's still one of the best concrete skateparks in the region. Also it was the first all 'crete skatepark in the DC area.

Arlington should apply this enlightened approach to attractive landscape design to its lackluster medians and urban parks. Hargreaves is designing Long Bridge park, and I suggest the county hire them for other projects as well.

Comment by Caroline Temmermand

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:59:17 EDT

Thanks for the great write up on this wonderful park. To help visitors further enjoy their visit I'd like to note two other important things:

1) Our designers enlisted young skaters' help in design the skate features, so we know we encorporated elements that are attractive to skaters of different ages and whose skating styles vary. The children who use this facility appreciate and respect it.

2) The design also is intended to educate people by telling the story of how water moves through our environment. One can follow water (represented by the blue stones) in the parking lot gutters, into the storm water system, and eventually into a stream. What you have labeled as a water culvert in a photo above is actually a storm sewer pipe we cut in half so people could peer inside it. We want people to know that whatever gets put into the storm sewers trash, oil, junk)ends up going directly into a stream unless it is filtered somewhere like a rain garden.

Many thanks for sharing the story of this very special place.

Caroline Temmermand
Division Chief
Parks and Natural Resources
Arlington County Government

Comment by Geoffrey Hatchard

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:33:11 EDT

great overview, thanks for pointing this out, dan!