Andre Kessler said the city of Santa Fe is going to "make my world."

That is, once the city finishes remodeling and expanding the skateboarding facility at De Vargas Park into a larger "skate plaza" next year.

The 16-year-old skateboarder likes rolling up and down and over the ramps and walls at the current site in the downtown park, even though cracks in the concrete have led to unexpected spills and, in one case, six stitches — thanks to a particularly nasty fall.

He and fellow skateboarder Sam Parker, 15, go to the park as often as possible. "It's in really bad condition, though," Parker said as he prepared to take a run down the roughly 6-foot-deep bowl in the skate park last week. There's little night lighting, and, according to the duo, after dark, cockroaches "flow out of the cracks onto the surface."

Now it's beginning to sound like a horror movie. But help is on the way! The city of Santa Fe contracted with Surroundings Studio LLC, a multidisciplinary design firm, to renovate the skate park as part of a larger improvement project called El Parque del Rio, from St. Francis Drive east along the Santa Fe River up toward Palace Avenue. Funding for the entire project comes from a $30 million bond passed by voters in 2008. The El Parque project will cost some $1.6 million — with the skate park sporting a price tag of about $300,000.

While the overall plan for El Parque calls for completion of the entire remodel by the end of 2012, the skate park will probably be redone next spring, according to Kenneth Francis, a partner with Surroundings.

The skate-park renovation will expand the skating surface by about 1,000 square feet and give it an entirely new design, making it "wheel friendly," according to Francis, meaning bicyclists, in-line skaters and people with disabilities (i.e. wheelchairs) can enjoy it too.

Ten 16-foot-tall light poles with one lamp each will provide light at night, since the park, like all city parks, officially is open until 10 p.m.

"It will have new lines, new paths. The concept will be much more 'street,' " Francis said. "We are basically taking the existing site and renovating the footprint toward a better design. It will feel more like a plaza."

The original skate park was designed by Harvey Monroe some 20 years ago. It's one of two official city skate parks in Santa Fe. The other is in Franklin E. Miles Park off Camino Carlos Rey.

Mike McIntyre, president of Action Sport Development in San Diego, serves as the skate park's consultant. In a telephone interview last week, he said the city and Monroe were forward-thinking in terms of using integrated concrete pieces for the park.

"But its biggest flaw is the actual elements: the transitions, the banks, the rails — the ratios are off," he said.

Like Francis and Brian Drypolcher, the city's river and watershed coordinator, McIntyre believes the skate park is run down and ready for a face-lift.

"Once it's done, when you look at it, you may not know it's a skate park," he said. "When the kids skate through it, you'll see a moving art form."

McIntyre said skateboarding — which started in the U.S. in the 1950s — is enjoying a spike in popularity. He pointed to cable channel ESPN's growing coverage of the activity and the increasing number of street skateboarding leagues.

This park, he said, will honor the activity's origins: "Street skaters were coming from urban environments, so creating an urban environment that is wheel friendly is more the movement now. You've got a sport, once seen as more rebellious, now becoming more mainstream within an aesthetic environment for street skaters. This is not an organized activity. You see so many businesses — like the mall — with signs reading, 'No skateboarding.' But it's an outlet for youth that needs to be provided."

Drypolcher said once the new park is up and running, it will provide a kinetic energy that will in turn draw spectators.

"The idea is to make that whole space a lot more appealing and inviting to people," he said. "When you are thinking about parks and public spaces, you ask, 'Why would somebody go there? What things could happen there that activate the space?' If you have an activity that draws people there, you can bring more people there for people watching."

The more ambitious river park remodel will include new sidewalks, innovative landscaping, shading devices, new trees (including some to shield the skateboarders from the sun) and infrastructure to slow, treat and release storm water in a way that benefits both the nearby vegetation and the Santa Fe River.

"We've created a series of different ways to capture water and move it through the parkway to slow it down and clean it up as it infiltrates into the river," Francis said. Even the skate park will serve to harvest rainwater. Up near East Alameda and El Alamo streets, El Parque del Rio will include a fruit orchard.

Once the project starts, the entire remodel will take four to six months, Francis said.

The city's Historic Design Review Board is scheduled to consider Francis' submission for the color of the concrete paving, the landscape walls and metal rail elements, as well as the new lighting designs, at its next meeting in October. Francis said he's not anticipating any problems there.

And when it's done, Drypolcher said, "The city will have a beautiful gathering spot. Not just a plaza for the skaters, but a place for people to come enjoy the activities around it. Right now, it's decrepit and not a very comfortable place to be. This will create a dignified heart for the downtown area."

Eventually — perhaps in a future bond-issue cycle — the city wants to expand on this initial remodel and build an amphitheater with a performance pavilion in the De Vargas Park area.

But for now, Drypolcher said, "There's a lot of real estate to cover from St. Francis Drive to Palace Avenue, and 1.6 million [dollars] turns out to be the peanut butter you have to spread thinly to make it go all the way."

Contact Robert Nott at 986-3021 or rnott@sfnewmexican.com.

ON THE WEB

Visit actionsportdesign.com/project/santa-fe-nm-el-parque-del-rio to see Surroundings' designs for the project.