I love the conversation going on here, sharing best practices and really looking at the successes, failures and difficulties associated with creating a skatepark at your library. Thanks Greg and Barbara.

Sorry to use time here for this but it’s important to recognize the people who did the heavy lifting.

Antoine Predock had virtually nothing to do with the Skate Park as far as I am aware. I was a very active supporter of putting the Park in front of Mesa Library but the prime motivators where the Los Alamos Police Chief, Wayne Torpy and the Parks and Recreation Department as well as a huge grass roots effort to make it happen after nearly a decade of promises. My understanding is that the Mesa Public Library Board voted against the project in an advisory vote, but luckily our County Councilors had the wisdom to proceed with this outstanding project.

It was a very contentious struggle to put the park in. Surrounding residents put up great opposition to the location in front of the Library. It seems to have worked out better than anyone could have imagined.

As far as the Library design goes. It was built in the shape of a bird if you look at it from an airplane. The problem with this is that Los Alamos is in restricted airspace because of our Nuclear Lab.

To me this building took the “buildings as art” concept a bit to far with odd angles and curves. It has turn into somewhat of a maintenance headache for the county as the roof is constantly leaking. On the other hand there is a big curved sweeping view of the Jemez Mountains from inside the Library that is just spectacular.

The building design is still quite controversial among residents of the county, but one thing I believe we are all starting to agree on is that the Skate Park is a nice addition to the area.

Oh, thanks to Google Maps and Google Earth we can now enjoy the main design feature of the building … hay that building looks like a “Pajarito.”

Thanks for noticing!