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Identified as the first public skatepark in Minneapolis at the time of its completion in May 2019, the 4,200 square foot plaza was one result of an ambitious four-year, $14 million campaign to build a new design headquarters and update the campus of Juxtaposition Arts (JXTA), a non-profit youth art and design education center, gallery, retail shop, and artists’ studio space. Rather than leave empty for four years the site of the new building, a prominent corner lot in North Minneapolis, JXTA designed and build a plaza that combined art, flexible open space, sustainable stormwater management, and skateboarding.

This student-led design, with assistance from City of Skates, the University of Minnesota Landscape Architecture Department, and the City of Minneapolis, consists of moveable furniture for multi-use purposes and skate features like a bank to wallride with cantilevered manual pad, bank to curb, and two round quarter pockets. Serving as a backdrop is an 840-foot long mural by Bronx-based graffiti artist Tats Cru, created during his residency in spring 2019. Three rain gardens, connected by a trench drain, occupy approximately fifteen