Take not youngens and oldens, there is stuff to skate everywhere. Well no shit. Honestly though the story behind this picture is an interesting one. It was the beginning of Summer and I had just returned to Raleigh from some departure to the West Coast. Jed Shooter, Sturgill Horn, Billy Childress, James Tupper, and Reuben Pickle were skating this piece of wood on a set of rocks. Being the child I am I noticed the building we were skating in front of was not yet locked up and had a pretty nice looking inner parking garage. Temptation led me to skate to the top of the garage to bomb down it… man, it was awesome.
Wanting more I found a working elevator and took it to the top level. My curiosity kicked in and I walked up a side staircase onto the roof where I noticed the architect had made a skatepark and the builders had actually built it. I tried to convince my friends below they needed to stop what they were doing and immediately report to the upper level, but they looked at me like I was crazy. Billy and Reuben took off to head back to Winston/Mt. Airy and everyone else was ready to peace out too. So I bombed back down the parking garage and pleaded with the crew while they put their boards away. Luckily James was down for the adventure and we made our way to the elevator.
When we got to the top he was as shocked as I was. A skatepark on a roof. We skated it for a while and got some footage. Sturgill and Jed finally came up and Sturgil shot his board 7 stories down into the abyss. There was a ledge you could grind but if you slipped over it you would surely fall to your death on the other side.
I would visit there two more times, once with Rails with no hassle. Eventually I took Brett Abramsky, Dan Murphy, and Rodent there before finally getting the cops called on us by a resident of the building in the background. The cop was worried for our lives but man, you could tell he was fucken hyped he got to go up on a rooftop. Rodent almost had him convinced to let us keep shredding but the old officers was too fearful. He said he originally got a call that someone was on a roof looking like they were gonna commit suicide.
I never did look into just who designed this setup, but man, just imagine if more apartment complexes were designed with skateable rooftops. I know for a fact more people would want to live there if some soundproofing was done, on our last skate there we bummed out a girl who was living on the top level, but she didn’t mind for too long.
The possibilities are endless, you could put a swimmable/skateable pool on top, you could put a basketball court, swingsets, and even a clear water slide that went on the outside of the building back into the building.
I’m quite the dreamer, but I think life would be more fun with those ideas. Future architects, take note…
I haven’t been back in months. The building now has lots of residents and I am sure the gates are locked. Tis the lesson of the day, when the getting is good, get it, don’t hesitate cause sooner or later all good things come to an end. Make the best of the present moment, there is no guarantee to how long its gonna last.
Happy exploring.