The Tauranga destination skatepark, designed by skatepark designer Richard Smith at RICH Landscapes, was developed through a co-design process undertaken with the community. The co-design process involved the following steps:

• In October-November 2021, Tauranga City Council conducted a survey of the community to gather feedback on why and where people skate and what makes a good skatepark. The survey received more than five hundred submissions, with more than 180 from people aged 24 years and under.
• Based on the survey results, the Tauranga City Council selected a 24-member community design group that represented a range of ages and skating interests, including skateboarding, roller skating, inline skating, BMX and scootering. The group collaborated with council staff and RICH Landscapes skatepark designer Richard Smith.
• The community design group met for the first time in February and subsequently in July and August 2022 to bring together the design of the destination skatepark, which included a competition flow bowl, skateable Art Area, a surf/skate ditch, competition style stair set-ups, miniramp and a linear street skating area with a variety of transition and trick features. The group also considered other park amenities such as landscaping, toilets with custodian office and storage, seating, drinking foundations, shade sails and a barbecue.
• The concept design for the destination skatepark was completed in September 2022. The council also announced the location of the destination skatepark at this time as the corner of Hull Road and Maunganui Road, opposite the New World supermarket on Maunganui Road. This site was chosen for distinct reasons, such as its visibility, accessibility, size, safety, and proximity to other amenities.
• The council also communicated with the public through media releases, social media posts and online updates on the project’s progress. The council also invited feedback from the public on the design and location of the destination skatepark through its website as a way of including the wider community in the design process that received a huge amount of positive and valuable feedback.

Once the concept design was completed it went through an additional development process with the Council, designers for the shared pathway and carpark, and local pro skater Shaun Boucher and Garth Urquhart from Grind King who has been a driving force for quality facilities to be implemented in the Tauranga Region.  The shared pathway was separated from the skateable art area and features were fine tuned and locked in with the skate representatives. From there RICH Landscapes detailed the skatepark design working with their structural engineer at Tilsley Engineering to provide input and PS1 signoff where required by the council.

As part of the development, RICH Landscapes, who have been pushing for more sustainable developments and technological advancements has incorporated the use of 3D printing technology supplied by Aotearoa’s first 3D Printing Company Qorox, based in Hamilton. This new technology will be used on a number of features throughout the environment, namely several ledge elements, a skateable art cantilevered quarterpipe and wave feature, and two skinny ledges of varied heights and lengths. Using Concrete 3D Printing in the project allowed RICH Landscapes to achieve more complex shapes that are difficult or impossible to make with standard form working techniques while reducing the consumption of products such as formwork to achieve the outcome. The designed features are being constructed in a variety of ways to evaluate different methods that we can be taken further into future projects.

FLOW skate elements are also included in the project such as Granite Pool Coping, Mixed Grain Bread, The Pharoah, and Two Toes Party Skate Kerbs and a number of custom Corten capping elements designed exclusively for the 3D Printed Features.

Mana Whenua input has yet to be received by RICH Landscapes, though Richard Smith (Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi, Whanganui Region) envisioned the space as connecting with the land it resides on; the Competition Flow Bowl and Stair Setups Area being the Maunga, the Skateable Art area being the rocky coastline at its base and the street skating area being the tātahi that stretches from it.

RICH Landscapes is proud to be selected to design this destination skatepark with the people and we can’t wait to see the final outcome achieved for the region.

‍