July 5, 2010
open road at afro-punk 2010
Afropunk Festival 2010 from Tracy Landon on Vimeo.
Two clips of the kids programs at Afro-Punk 2010. Turn on the HD.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
At Open Road, kids work side by side with architects, artists, writers, scientists, and professional athletes. Green areas are integrated with active sports, reading areas and skate ramps with slides and art. Ponds, sand and dirt are playable as well as respected living systems. Organic food grown in a skate park is served by the cafeteria staff. Instead of fences and signs, suggestive design tells you where the fast ball playing and skateboarding spots are. This is the leafy green area good for growing food, reading, and birdwatching.
Since kids love to play in water our water systems are open and integrated into the playground. Ponds are connected with underground cement holding tanks. These lead to deep ponds that fill & run dry. Kids play in the ponds, which change daily as the water levels change. Through participatory design the ponds and streams change direction as kids design new channels, waterfalls, and retention basins. All of the stormwater at Open Road Park is channeled into an 8' deep 60' wide bowl, open to skateboards, BMX, tag, and peoplewatching. Come play with us. openroadpark@gmail.com
April 28, 2010
Coming up: AfroPunk
Kane Cameron, Eric Johnson, Dave Willis, Jitu + Taji Ameen teach skate at AfroPunk 09, left. Join us for AfroPunk 2010 the last weekend in June. Thank you!
April 10, 2010
King of Spring
Volunteers for King of Spring:
Meet Paula at 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue, Harlem
11am on April 17th, 2010
openroadpark@gmail.com
Meet Paula at 114th Street and Pleasant Avenue, Harlem
11am on April 17th, 2010
openroadpark@gmail.com
March 24, 2010
food gardens
Working with SchoolFood, Open Road has been creating food gardens and skate parks with public school students from the 420 E. 12th Street and 350 Grand Street campuses.
New Design High School, Essex Street Academy, East Side Community High School, and Ross Global students are growing food in their gardens. Strawberries, lettuce, collards, garlic, sweet potato greens, peas and herbs are growing in open road park, on the roof at 350 Grand, and in school gardens in the Lower East Side. This is served in the New Design cafeteria, at Open Road Park, and on the roof for skateboarding classes + events. This spring 2010 we will grow food at both campuses for the cafeterias at all the schools!
In 2010 new partners are joining us; Kin from Cornucopia, Liz Neves, AAAS Science Policy Fellow David Hewitt, Ross Global, and SlowFood.
New Design High School, Essex Street Academy, East Side Community High School, and Ross Global students are growing food in their gardens. Strawberries, lettuce, collards, garlic, sweet potato greens, peas and herbs are growing in open road park, on the roof at 350 Grand, and in school gardens in the Lower East Side. This is served in the New Design cafeteria, at Open Road Park, and on the roof for skateboarding classes + events. This spring 2010 we will grow food at both campuses for the cafeterias at all the schools!
In 2010 new partners are joining us; Kin from Cornucopia, Liz Neves, AAAS Science Policy Fellow David Hewitt, Ross Global, and SlowFood.
February 17, 2010
February 8, 2010
February 4, 2010
November 27, 2009
OASIS Maps
Skateboarders, urban gardeners, artists; check this out. OASIS lets you click on any piece of property in NYC and see the owner, political representatives, how it's used, who takes care of it, toxic contaminants, natural areas, and much more. Open Road has been working on this collaborative effort with a huge team for many years. See the website here and see an article about the collaborative here.
November 15, 2009
November 2, 2009
Save the Unisphere
check out a movie by clicking the photo, and sign the petition online
check out our proposal spearheaded by Rodney Torres after the jump
We're supporting local efforts led by Rodney Torres to add new skateboarding areas to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. These include a new skateboarding area under the Van Wyck Expressweay, new skateable art benches along the park's winding pathways, and a new skate plaza near the Unisphere.
Friends of Flushing Meadows
Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a beautiful park with skateable plazas known around the world. The Unisphere, the car free paths, fields, and dry fountains are filled with people biking, skateboarding, walking, and playing volleyball and soccer. Winding paths, open fields, and dry fountains promote a wide variety of activities not available in other nearby parks.
But now the Unisphere is closed to skateboarding, without any new skate park alternative nearby. So Friends of Flushing Meadows has been created to mobilize the community. We believe this park will be even more popular year round when the community is more involved in care and improvement. Skateboarder advocates are taking a lead in the Friends of Flushing Meadows, and are involving soccer, volleyball, and cricket players, bikers, and families in park improvements & supporting the Parks Department’s work in our park.
We are designing a beautiful new skate plaza near the Unisphere and need your support to make it happen.
In addition to this new skate plaza, there are other areas of the park we'd like to open to recreation. The area under the Van Wyck now is just designed for cars, but people informally skate and play there. These areas could be made beautiful and safe recreational spots with a combination of professional design/build and DIY community efforts, like Burnside and FDR.
The Unisphere and Flushing Meadows have been a home for the local and worldwide skateboarding community for over 20 years, breeding new generations of talent, keeping kids motivated, progressing, and productively active. Skateboarders document their skills for skateboarding publications and video productions and these promote the park in a positive light. This coverage will help attract funding to the Parks Department for maintenance and capital projects, and for programming, events, and education for the Friends of Flushing Meadows.
There is great interest in the worldwide skateboarding community in the Unisphere, which is being returned to a prior life as a fountain despite its vastly more popular current use: active recreation and skateboarding. A petition is filled with signatures to reopen it, at least seasonally, for skateboarding. If the Unisphere itself can't be open to skateboarding, the petition shows how many skateboarders care about it, so there will be official support for a real skate park within close view. Many people consider skateboarding at Flushing Meadows, on the winding paths and around the Unisphere, as a cultural heart of the park.
Beyond the Unisphere, skateboarding and bicycling take place all over the park, in winding paths that extend around Meadow Lake and connect to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. There are paths around Willow Lake, in a natural wetlands area in the little-used far southern section of the park. Recreational playing fields and playgrounds in the park are used for activities that reflect the vast cultural mix of Queens like soccer, cricket, volleyball, biking and skateboarding.
Please get involved in three projects Friends of Flushing Meadows is working on now: 1) to design the fountain jets so the Unisphere can be open to skateboarding when the fountain is dry, 2) to add skate art + benches along the winding pathways, and 3) to create a new skatepark in Flushing Meadows and make areas now filled with cars new recreational space. All of these areas will be multi-use and welcoming to everyone in Flushing Meadows Park in Corona, Queens. Contact us at openroadpark@gmail.com
check out our proposal spearheaded by Rodney Torres after the jump
We're supporting local efforts led by Rodney Torres to add new skateboarding areas to Flushing Meadows Corona Park. These include a new skateboarding area under the Van Wyck Expressweay, new skateable art benches along the park's winding pathways, and a new skate plaza near the Unisphere.
Friends of Flushing Meadows
Flushing Meadows Corona Park is a beautiful park with skateable plazas known around the world. The Unisphere, the car free paths, fields, and dry fountains are filled with people biking, skateboarding, walking, and playing volleyball and soccer. Winding paths, open fields, and dry fountains promote a wide variety of activities not available in other nearby parks.
But now the Unisphere is closed to skateboarding, without any new skate park alternative nearby. So Friends of Flushing Meadows has been created to mobilize the community. We believe this park will be even more popular year round when the community is more involved in care and improvement. Skateboarder advocates are taking a lead in the Friends of Flushing Meadows, and are involving soccer, volleyball, and cricket players, bikers, and families in park improvements & supporting the Parks Department’s work in our park.
We are designing a beautiful new skate plaza near the Unisphere and need your support to make it happen.
In addition to this new skate plaza, there are other areas of the park we'd like to open to recreation. The area under the Van Wyck now is just designed for cars, but people informally skate and play there. These areas could be made beautiful and safe recreational spots with a combination of professional design/build and DIY community efforts, like Burnside and FDR.
The Unisphere and Flushing Meadows have been a home for the local and worldwide skateboarding community for over 20 years, breeding new generations of talent, keeping kids motivated, progressing, and productively active. Skateboarders document their skills for skateboarding publications and video productions and these promote the park in a positive light. This coverage will help attract funding to the Parks Department for maintenance and capital projects, and for programming, events, and education for the Friends of Flushing Meadows.
There is great interest in the worldwide skateboarding community in the Unisphere, which is being returned to a prior life as a fountain despite its vastly more popular current use: active recreation and skateboarding. A petition is filled with signatures to reopen it, at least seasonally, for skateboarding. If the Unisphere itself can't be open to skateboarding, the petition shows how many skateboarders care about it, so there will be official support for a real skate park within close view. Many people consider skateboarding at Flushing Meadows, on the winding paths and around the Unisphere, as a cultural heart of the park.
Beyond the Unisphere, skateboarding and bicycling take place all over the park, in winding paths that extend around Meadow Lake and connect to the Brooklyn Queens Expressway. There are paths around Willow Lake, in a natural wetlands area in the little-used far southern section of the park. Recreational playing fields and playgrounds in the park are used for activities that reflect the vast cultural mix of Queens like soccer, cricket, volleyball, biking and skateboarding.
Please get involved in three projects Friends of Flushing Meadows is working on now: 1) to design the fountain jets so the Unisphere can be open to skateboarding when the fountain is dry, 2) to add skate art + benches along the winding pathways, and 3) to create a new skatepark in Flushing Meadows and make areas now filled with cars new recreational space. All of these areas will be multi-use and welcoming to everyone in Flushing Meadows Park in Corona, Queens. Contact us at openroadpark@gmail.com
October 10, 2009
Save the Date: Open Road Rooftop, 350 Grand Street, NYC
2nd Annual Halloween Hellraiser on November 1, 2009.
The second annual Halloween Hellraiser is set for Sunday November 1, 2009, from 12 noon to 6 pm at Open Road Rooftop, 350 Grand Street at Essex, Manhattan. Skateboarding, music, art, literature, and food.
And if enough of you volunteer we can do free Skate School at the Hellraiser like we did at afropunk
September 6, 2009
August 23, 2009
skateable art
above, Noguchi unrealized NYC Playground, Riverside Park
above left + center Noguchi unrealized NYC playgrounds.
above right Lily Yeh, Philadelphia, unfenced 5' high concrete
above left rooftop pyramid. center grass maze.
right giant slide, Smith playground in Philadelphia.
above left + center Noguchi unrealized slideable pyramids, NYC
above right public park in San Francisco
left, giant slide in Japan, bikeable hills, skateable mounds in Europe.
NYC is far behind in allowing public art you can play with.
Are we a cultural capital or not?
August 22, 2009
email us at openroadpark@gmail.com July 22, 2009
Billy Rohan, NYC Parks Commissioner Benepe, Paula & June
We work closely with the Departments of Parks and Education to identify spots for skateboarding, raise sponsorship funding, lead a participatory design process with skaters, and build the project. Then we support stewardship activities and events in the completed parks.
Contact us at openroadpark@gmail.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
