As of this morning, the refurbished big banks section of the Brooklyn Banks — underneath the Manhattan side of Brooklyn Bridge between Rose Street and Water Street — is open to the public for the first time since summer 2010.
This is part two of a three-part effort to restore the spot to the skateable condition in was in before 2004 renovations. (As you may recall, the small banks were supposed to be phase two, but they switched places with the big banks to become phase three once they were only restored to post-2004 condition back in November 2024.)
The restoration was a collaboration between Gotham Park, The Skatepark Project and Vans. Shout out to Steve Rodriguez for being the advocate between all of them. Much of the bricks on the actual banks are the original ones, while the flat surfaces and some other patches are new ones.
With the Love Park marble in Malmo, the refurbished undercroft at London’s Southbank, and now the big banks, this continues a surreal streak of spots from street skating’s nascent age being resurrected decades later. Beyond a bar sitting at the top of the banks [which 500 kids will no doubt tail drop off of during the opening weekend], the spot is pretty much unaltered from layout it originally was in the nineties.
A huge victory for skateboarding in New York, thanks to everyone who made it happen ❤️
I like that they kept the original bondo on the other rail
Does the dog come with the spot?
new york really grew to become the greatest skate city in the world.
idgaf about no la, sf or barcelona.
Small Banks should have been done first. Makes no sense to do the Big Banks first.
We’re hearing this year still, but you know how the city gets
All that matters is da Banks being restored. City coulda easily done something else. This is a big win for NY Skateboarding ✊