New skateboard park may help bridge gaps

Aficionados are invited to a reception Monday to meet designer Zack Wormhoudt of California at the Boston Public Library at 6 p.m. Renata von Tscharner said skateboarders who come to the reception will be asked to help design park elements.

Von Tscharner, president of the Charles River Conservancy who helped get the ball rolling, said the current timeline for the park will be summer 2006 after the design plan is finished this summer.

"This will be a park for advanced athletes," said von Tscharner, who recently toured the Louisville Extreme Park in Kentucky. "It will be illuminated at night and perhaps be open 24 hours a day. Right now, we want to involve as many people as we can . . . to make this a successful project."

Von Tscharner said the members of CRC were inspired by some of Boston's history to build such a facility. Frederick Law Olmsted and Charles Eliot designed the country's first outdoor gymnasium in front of Massachusetts General Hospital in the 1890s; a century later, President Eisenhower's cardiologist, Paul Dudley White, provided the impetus for the 17-mile pathway along the Charles River.

"What we're building," said von Tscharner, "is another world-class sports facility."

At 40,000 square feet, the park will be among the largest such municipal facilities in the country, and will include technical elements such as bowls, pipes, streetscapes, snake runs, and an area for spectators.

The design cost of $100,000 was kicked off by $5,000 in seed money from the Tony Hawk Foundation and the Boston Foundation. The final cost is budgeted at $1 million, to be raised by a fund-raising campaign by CRC over the next two years.

Supporters include Matt Amorello, chairman of the Turnpike Authority, State Senator Jarrett Barrios, a Cambridge Democrat, and Mayor Michael Sullivan of Cambridge.

To participate in Monday's reception, you must register by calling 617-641-9131 or logging onto charlesriverconservancy.org.