Spots: New Jersey — Jersey City

Update – April 2011: The building next door (going north) recently opened its plaza and has a medium-sized gap around the perimeter. It’s over three feet of mulch, a foot-and-a-half of marble, and down a four foot drop. The landing is on choppy bricks, and about twenty feet away from the guardrail to the water. (Last two pictures at the bottom of the page.)

Update 2009: All of the step up ledges here have been skatestopped. The only things that remain are the three bench gaps with the ending ledge, the lower black marble ledges, and the gap in front.

Spot: Similar to many of the new office buildings that have sprouted up since 2000 amidst the downtown Jersey City development craze, the outside plaza of this building is topped off with some of the worst ground for skateboarding there is (short of cobblestones.) For some reason, developers love commissioning people who use cheap, shitty looking bricks for the outside floors. It’s unfavorable for our purposes, but maybe a good look on their end, as it does render a lot of the obstacles here completely unskateable (namely, everything on the ground level), but it just looks absolutely hideous.

In front of the building is a gap off a four-and-a-half foot high ledge over about five feet of plants. The runway is perfectly smooth marble, but the landing has a giant, fence-bordered planter right after it, forcing you to do all of your tricks at a sharp angle. Towards the back, there is a subtle, slanted-wall that is ideal for wallrides. It leads to an assortment of step-up ledges that are normally waxed very well and wide enough for pretty much any trick you can think of on them. In back of them, in a separate part of the plaza is a long, smooth, foot-high black marble ledge. More towards the front of the building is a set-up of three, three-foot-wide, foot-and-a-half high granite benches that are separated by two feet of space, and ultimately end with a ledge above the last one that can be grinded or slided.

Bust — ♦♦ / Occasional: Come here at night or on the weekend and you should not get kicked out unless you are particularly unlucky.

Location: Second Street and the Hudson River in downtown Jersey City, NJ. If you’re coming from Uptown or Queens, take the B, D, F, V, N, Q, R or W to 34th Street — Herald Square and transfer to a Journal Square or Newark bound PATH train, and take it to Pavonia-Newport (first stop in New Jersey, less than a ten minute ride from Manhattan.) If you’re coming from Downtown or Brooklyn, take the A, C, E, 2, or 3 to World Trade Center and take a Newark or Hoboken bound PATH train to Pavonia-Newport. Once you get out, make a left on Washington Boulevard and go south until you reach 2nd Street. Make a left on 2nd, and skate west until you hit the water.

Pictures (Click to Enlarge):