Project is both stormwater management and public skatepark

A new structure in Denver, Colorado combines stormwater infrastructure with a skate park and mixed-use community space.

The “Community Forms” project is a work from Matt Baron, Artist Fellow at the Black Cube Nomadic Museum, life-long skateboarder, and professor at the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs. The project simultaneously operates as an art piece, a stormwater management installation, a skate park, picnic area and general mixed-use community space.

A gallery of the project - from design to completion - can be found here, on Black Cube's website.

The area around the installation had bee prone to flooding for some time. According to Westword, water from the site used to drain into one larger downspout, which didn’t have a clear route to the South Platte. The project was designed to be able to channel water from the downspout into a meandering bioswale.

The project is about 100 feet by 30 feet, and was built near the mixed-use Taxi campus, according to The Know. The area’s curved concrete area guides waterflow in the area into nearby bioswales and waters trees installed around the concrete – while also providing the perfect surfaces for skateboarders’ enjoyment.

“Me designing these concrete forms, there’s no way [my skateboarding background] wasn’t also going on the whole time in my head where I’m imagining, ‘Oh my gosh, you can come up on this side and make it over here,’” Barton said, as reported by Next City.

The project had cost an estimated $100,000, according to next City. The project was assisted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)’s ArtWorks program, which contributed $34,000 in aid for the project.

The project was created through Baron’s fellowship with Black Cube, which produces pop-up art installations throughout the area.