DIY Skateparks: A Global Architecture of Rebellion

Between the mid-1970s and early-’80s hundreds of concrete skateparks popped up in almost every state throughout the U.S. They offered skaters a mixture of bowls, snake runs, cement reservoirs, full pipes, half-pipes, and quarter-pipes of all shapes and sizes. They had names like Hi Roller, Upland’s Pipeline, Kona, Del Mar, Surfin’ Turf. By the mid-’80s however, all but a small handful had closed, and bulldozers left no traces that they’d existed.