Design 2017- Build Spring 2019
The Switchyard Park will be the new Central Park for Bloomington, Indiana. It is located in the old rail switchyard and the B-line, a Rails to Trails pedestrian thoroughfare, runs through the center of the massive park. The city saw the switchyard as a great opportunity to turn a large piece of polluted post-industrial swath of land into a site of restoration, beauty, and recreation. The skatepark is just one element in the vast park, and we were very happy to collaborate with the park architects at REA in Indianapolis to design the skatepark in 2017-18.
Bloomington is the first Indiana city to have two concrete skateparks. When we began this design, we starting by asking locals what they wanted to see in a new Bloomington Skatepark and the answers were 2 major elements- a large street park and an open bowl/snakerun area. It was also important to us to include references to the train yard, and the sites industrial past. We studied aerial photos of the site and other large switchyards and developed the references into skateable elements.
The entrance is a large switch with tracks that lead riders into the main lines of the street area with boxes/pads/rails/planter that resemble box cars and an industrial site. The snake run is accessible from the entrance and also many other lines that flow into each section of the park. It includes banks, round wall, and large pyramid hip and a custom tile band with 4 snake mosaics.
The skatepark is located directly off of the B-line just south of Grimes Lane.
Skatepark Build Pics!
Leave a Reply