I personally think that skateboarding brings a dynamic element to the social space of the public realm. I’d rather see skateboarders using a space then it being empty.
That being said- most clients see it the other way. Take for instance a project I worked on recently. The University of Toronto wanted to prevent skateboarders from riding along benches. After some thought, we revised our benches to have a series of canters which would catch the rail part of the skateboard if they were to try to ride the bench.
See the images. And to date there have been no skateboard marks. (knock on wood)
Also, it was precast concrete in case your wondering.
