We’re beyond stoked to have been featured in the “Golden Transcript”, a local news paper based out of Colorado. The article touches on our upcoming Golden, Colorado project and the communities positive response to our latest design concept for their future skate park. Scroll down for the full story!
Words by Christy Steadman
When Tim Payne asked what people thought of his company’s conceptual design for Ulysses Park, a loud round of applause provided the answer: Golden’s skaters are excited for their new skate park.
“I think it’s beautiful,” local skater Christian McDonnell said. “We’ve heard that a remodel is coming for a long time, but now it’s a reality.”
Payne, founder and president of Team Pain Enterprises Inc., a custom skate park design and build company, presented the conceptual design Sept. 21 to more than 50 people at the Golden Community Center. The meeting followed an Aug. 12 community input meeting in which skaters were encouraged to pitch ideas to Team Pain on what features they would like included at Ulysses Park.
And Team Pain listened.
“The design looks great,” said Ric Widenor, a skater and one of the directors of Square State Skate, a local company that provides afterschool skate clubs and summer skate camps for kids of all ages. “It will have challenges for all ability levels of skaters for many, many years.”
The original skate park at Ulysses Park, which is near South Golden Road, was cutting-edge when it opened in 1992. And although the skate park continues to be a popular amenity, it is not used to the degree it was in the past, said Rod Tarullo, the city’s director of parks, recreation and golf. He added skaters tend to visit skate parks in neighboring cities that offer advanced and more exciting features.
In July, Golden City Council awarded an $800,000 contract to Team Pain to redesign the skate park into a state-of-the-art facility. And at a Sept. 24 city council meeting, all seven council members gave a thumbs-up approval of Team Pain’s conceptual design.
“This will be a remarkable addition to our parks-and-rec department,” Golden Mayor Marjorie Sloan said.
The skate park is now in the feasibility stages, Payne said, meaning the company is surveying the site to “make sure everything is OK” for the design.
One unanswered question is considering what to do with the skate park’s halfpipe — Ulysses Park’s best feature, according to local skaters, and something that many of the Sept. 21 attendees fondly mentioned they “grew up on.”
The conceptual design included a “surprise feature.” Resembling a tunnel with Golden carved into the top, the logo casts the city’s name in shadow, tracking the sun.
“It’s something we’ve thought about for a long time,” Payne said, “and something we’ve wanted to do in a lot of parks.”
Construction on the new skate park could begin in six to eight weeks, Payne said.
Team Pain is not the type of company that will go strictly off the blueprints, Payne said. The design will “constantly be in development until the park is complete.”
It’s important for a community to have a nice skate park, Widenor said.Some skate parks have been in existence for a long time, he said, which were not built by skate boarder design-build companies. Because these skate parks are not frequented by serious skaters, they can become a “hangout,” more than anything else, where kids go and do things they should not be doing, Widenor said.
“Skating is a positive activity,” he said. A good skate park should and can “promote inspiration and growth.”
