The Burnside Skatepark is a DIY concrete skatepark located in

Portland, Oregon Portland ( ) is the List of cities in Oregon, most populous city in the U.S. state of Oregon, located in the Pacific Northwest region. Situated close to northwest Oregon at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, ...

, United States. Burnside was the first DIY skatepark project. It is located under the east end of the Burnside Bridge. The project was started without permission from the city of Portland before being accepted as a public skatepark. Its features include many hips, pools, pyramids, and vertical sections. The

skatepark A skatepark, or skate park, is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, Freestyle scootering, scootering, and aggressive inline skating. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, stairw ...

receives no funding from the city of Portland. The park is regarded as an on-going project that is funded by donations.

History

The DIY project was begun by skateboarders in the summer of 1990 by pouring concrete against Burnside's main wall, creating a vertical transition obstacle in the empty parking lot below the east-end of the Burnside bridge. The skateboarders found inspiration to do so because the area was covered and protected from Portland's rainy season, allowing the park's riders to skate all year long. With a spare couple of bags of cement, the project was begun. The founders created a bank obstacle three feet by three feet in dimensions. The second obstacle created was another bank against the same wall, this time with the dimensions of five by six feet. The banks were eventually merged into a single bank. The second major obstacle built was a mini bowl pocket along the north-end support beam of the bridge. Following these initial small obstacles, the founders of the DIY project struck a deal with nearby construction workers, employed by Ross Island Cement, building the

I-84 Interstate 84 may refer to: * Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N * Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts), passing through New York and Connecticut {{road disambiguation ...

on-ramp. The skateboarders convinced the workers to give them leftover cement from the

on-ramp construction. From then on, the project's construction exploded, with the skaters re-paving the ground of the parking lot. Prior to the beginning of the

project, the spot was overrun with illegal activity. In 2016, an apartment complex known as

Yard The yard (symbol: yd) is an English units, English unit of length in both the British imperial units, imperial and US United States customary units, customary systems of measurement equalling 3 foot (unit), feet or 36 inches. Sinc ...

was constructed west of the Burnside skatepark. There was a lot of speculation on what would happen to the park, with supporters of the

creating petitions to preserve the skatepark. Ultimately, the skatepark did not experience any loss of territory, just a loss of sunlight from the building blockage. The construction of the apartment complex obstructed sunlight from the skatepark, causing Burnside to be much darker during the day. To compensate for this, Yard's chief developer agreed to install lights for the skatepark.

Influence

Burnside is credited with the start of the DIY movement in the skateboarding industry. Its foundation lead to two of the largest skatepark-construction companies, Grindline Skateparks and Dreamland Skateparks, both of which have gone to build hundreds of additional skateparks across America. In a 2009 article the Wall Street Journal attributes Burnside as being instrumental in transforming Portland into "the skateboarding capital of the world" and the site serves as a memorable landmark on the "Portland Walking Tour."

References

{{Kerns, Portland, Oregon Kerns, Portland, Oregon Skateparks in the United States Sports venues in Portland, Oregon