From the
Renton City Website:
Liberty Skate Park offers children, families and skating enthusiasts exciting thrills-from quarter pipes and skateable artwork, to highlights such as a twinkie, a funbox, mounds, bowls, a half pipe and more. The skate park is located inside Liberty Park at the site of the former Henry Moses Pool.
Liberty Skate Park is an essential part of a well-rounded recreation program. As with other recognized sports like football and baseball, skating provides a good outlet for youths and other enthusiasts to learn new skills and meet new people.
Over 100 residents, many of them students, worked with clay to create their visions for a Skate Park in Renton. Elements from their designs were incorporated into the project. According to Scott Yamamura, a local professional skateboarder and skate park designer, getting design ideas from local skateboarders was an essential part of the process: "Skateboarders carry varied tastes on ramps and other terrain. With input from the public we were able to take this project and tailor it to the desires of local skateboarders."
What sets Renton's park apart from other area skate parks, according to Yamamura, is the inclusion of skateable artwork funded by the Renton Municipal Arts Commission 1% for Art monies. The artwork is comprised of what skaters call whoop-de-dos, a series of hump-like ramps. The effect is of a "river" of colored concrete with boulders. This functional element is also called "Rolling Waters" and mimics the motion of water. "The art was purposed to not only please the eye, but also serve as an obstacle to be used in the park. As a skateboarder, it should be quite an experience to be cruising along the dynamic shapes and perform tricks across boulders," he says.
The skate park itself is about 8,400 square feet and includes obstacles for varying degrees of ability. Since novice skaters as well as more experienced skaters were involved in the design process, the park is accessible for all skill levels. Skater-friendly elements include two bowls, hips (two ramps meeting at an angle), quarterpipes and halfpipes-(curved ramps), a funbox (which includes ledges and a railing) and a twinkie (an elongated, curved ramp).
Construction of the Skate Park began in December 2000 and was completed in early April of 2001. The consulting engineers for the project were Gray & Osborne, Inc. of Seattle and the general contractor was Wyser Construction, Inc. from Everett. Over 2,000 cubic yards of soil from a Highlands Park re-grading project were recycled to fill in the swimming pool and construct some of the obstacles at the Skate Park.
"The project has been a wonderful team effort all the way along-from the initial design workshops through construction. We all look forward to opening the park to the public," said Capital Project Coordinator, Lesley Wiscomb, prior to the park's opening. Total construction cost for the park was approximately $170,000.