
Concrete under the east end of the Burnside Bridge. Built by skaters in 1990 without permission, formally accepted by the city after the fact. The template every modern DIY references.
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Since 1990
OCT 31, 1990
The first DIY skatepark project. Built by skaters on Halloween night 1990 under the east end of the Burnside Bridge and accepted by the city after the fact.
Background. On Halloween night 1990 a group of Portland skateboarders unloaded bags of quick-set concrete in an unused parking lot beneath the east end of the Burnside Bridge and began pouring transitions against the bridge's main wall. They had no permission, no city involvement, and no plan for what came next. The pours continued through the early 1990s. Each weekend added another section: a small bowl, a hip, a wall ride, a pump bump. The geometry was set by what worked under skating rather than by any drafted design. Skaters built, repaired, and modified the park continuously, and the city of Portland — initially hostile — gradually accepted Burnside's existence and folded it into the public-space conversation through the mid-1990s. The park has never received municipal construction funding and remains community-funded and community-maintained. Burnside is the template every modern DIY skatepark references. The model — unauthorised construction followed by community defence and de-facto legalisation — has been replicated in dozens of cities worldwide. Wall Street Journal in 2009 credited Burnside with transforming Portland into "the skateboarding capital of the world."