NEW design proposals are to be unveiled this week for an urban park which hopes to bring more community space to Glasgow’s southside.
The Devon Street Urban Park, a project led by Glasgow’s Urban Sports (GUS) community, is to launch its designs in Tramway’s upper foyer space between Wednesday 3 and Sunday 6 October for public view and consultation.
The proposal aims to transform an underutilised area beneath the M74 motorway to create a new public, urban sculpture park and active leisure space in Glasgow.
This is in a bid to provide important green space for the local communities and amenities and activities for young people in the area.
This project is almost 10 years old and has been led by Scottish artists/skateboarders Toby Paterson and Raydale Dower.
The pair have also since teamed up with BMX rider and professional ramp builder John Bailey in 2020.
Bailey had just recently completed the Loading Bay skatepark in Port Dundas in north Glasgow.
The Loading Bay now receives 30,000 plus visitors annually and aims to provide urban sports programming to schools and community organisations across Glasgow.
The park has most recently been recognised as the first national Skateboard Hub for the UK by Skateboard GB.
In 2023, the team worked with Glasgow City Council on the city’s Cycling & Urban Sport Strategy.
The strategy has attempted to identify opportunities for provision of urban sports within Glasgow neighbourhoods at different scales.
This includes the skate features added at the Riverside Museum, delivered in partnership with Glasgow City Council (GCC) and Glasgow Life to coincide with the opening of the new Govan-Partick Bridge.
The Riverside Museum ‘skate spot’ is an example of the ideas that GUS say they are proposing for the Devon Street Urban Park.
They hope it can be a new type of integrated urban space, designed to support social and cultural activity for all ages.
The project will include attempt to incorporate public art, active green space and an urban sports landscape.
The details suggest that the project will try to transform approximately 8000 square metres of “lost” space.
The project has attracted investment from the United States through the Susanne Marcus Collins Foundation (SMCF) who has supported the design process through 2023 – 2024.
The foundation recently confirmed an offer of an initial £1.2m in funding towards the capital delivery of the project.
The group are looking to gain public support for the proposal to secure further private or public funding.
Danny MacAskill, professional street trials mountain bike rider, said: “Devon Street Urban Park is such an exciting project.
“[It is] a stone’s throw away from my old house on the southside of Glasgow, it will be a great place to ride.
“It would have been a dream to have this growing up, what a great opportunity for kids in the south side of Glasgow to learn to ride and get rad.”
Leah Moodie, artist/skateboarder and GUS board member, said: “As an artist and skateboarder, I’m looking forward to seeing this unused section of land transformed into an inspiring space.
“[A place] where members of the community will be free to use it to express themselves however they wish. It’s a unique project with so much scope for creativity.”
Jon Molyneux, Scottish Greens Councillor for the Pollokshields Ward, said: “I am pleased to offer my support for the GUS proposal to develop the site underneath the M74 at Devon Street into a park for Urban Sports.
“I believe this proposal has the potential to be genuinely transformative and deliver across a number of environmental, economic and social inclusion agendas.”
Raffaele Esposito, city design manager at GCC, said: “As City Design Manager in GCC/Planning, I’d like to offer my full intellectual endorsement for the GUS Devon Street Urban Park Proposal.
“This vision epitomises the very concept of agile and sustainable urban action for the regeneration of an area ripe for it.”
