Kid's skateboard park design gets BIGGER

When 14-year-old Nick Stevens did his design for a community skateboard park as a school project, he was thinking small. Later, when the City of Maryland Heights accepted the design, it started to get much bigger.

Last school year, Nick was an eighth-grader at Holman Middle School. His class was taking part in a University of Missouri-St. Louis program which encourages middle schoolers to participate in community planning.

Nick likes to skateboard with friends. So he thought the class should design a new skateboard park for Creve Coeur Park in Maryland Heights.

"I was thinking of a skateboard park for kids in the local community," Nick said.

But, once the City of Maryland Heights and the St. Louis Parks Department saw his design, the idea started to get bigger.

Chris Ludwig is the county's project manager for construction of the skateboard park. Creve Coeur Park is a county facility within the city limits of Maryland Heights.

Ludwig said, "Other communities in the St. Louis area have skateboard parks. We're thinking on a grander scale. We want to attract the attention of televised competitions like ESPN2 or X Games."

Currently, most of these regional or national competitions are held in California. Although Nick said Florida has some big parks as does France and Spain.

St. Louis County is selecting an official designer for the skateboard park. Nick has been asked by both the county and city to be an advisor to the professional designer.

That's pretty good for a kid whose project wasn't even first choice of his school class.

Nick wanted to design the skateboard park. But, most of the other students wanted to design a playground at the new Ranken-Jordan Rehabilitation Center. That school is relocating to a new facility in Maryland Heights.

However, teacher Debbie Green decided the class could do both designs. In the end, Nick was the only student working on the skateboard project.

"After I saw the hassles the kids had with the playground planning, I was thankful that I was working alone," he said.

Nick's original design included both half- and quarter-pipe features as well as kicker rail and pyramid obstacles that skateboarders use to do their tricks. He even included a budget to tell what each feature in the park would cost.

He said there are other obstacles that could be added. "Skateboarders can put just about anything in a park to use. I've seen people do a lot of things on picnic tables."

Nick had no spectator bleachers in his design. He had been thinking only about local users.

He produced his computer-assisted park design on the Tony Hawk's Pro Skater2 game which plays on PlayStation2. The game has its own ready-made game but there is blank space where kids can create their own park design.

"You can even play a game on your own design," he said.

He took the video design and budget for his presentation to city and county officials.

There is no firm date on when the skateboard park will be open for use. Since this project needs both city and county approvals, that can take time. They also need to find funding.

However, Mary Vaughan of the Maryland Heights parks department said one company has given $12,000 to get the park started.

Vaughan added, "We're destined to do this skateboard park project."

Although Nick enjoyed designing the park project, he said he isn't planning to make a career out of it. He said, "I might like to design my own home sometime. But, I can't see doing design all my life."

He added, "I'm really into music and maybe I'd like to be in espionage, like the CIA,"

Asked about his spy interest, Nick said, "I read a lot of books by Tom Clancy when I was growing up. And I can't get enough of spy movies."

Nick already has 1 1/2 years of French in school.

He also was awarded the 2002 Most Outstanding Male Student trophy at Holman School. Individual awards are given to the boy and girl who show all-around excellence as an eighth grader.