Willard Park (Ebobs) Skatepark

Design 2021/ Build 2022. The Willard Park Skatepark (officially and affectionately known to the community as Ebobs Skatepark or the Ethan Williams Memorial Skatepark) is a landmark 13,000-square-foot outdoor concrete facility located on the near eastside of Indianapolis, Indiana. Opened in June 2022, it holds deep cultural significance as the first proper public skatepark built by the city of Indianapolis in over 20 years. Designed and constructed by the renowned Hunger Skateparks (based out of Bloomington, Indiana), the park is a masterclass in combining high-performance transition and street design with rich local history and profound memorial artwork. Spatial Context & History of Willard ParkLocation: 1901 E. Washington Street, Indianapolis, IN 46201 (roughly one mile east of downtown). Historical Site Context: Willard Park sits on the historic original grounds of the Indiana School for the Deaf (which operated there from 1850 to 1911). Hunger Skateparks honored this heritage by fabricating a prominent flat grind rail that spells out "INDIANAPOLIS" in American Sign Language (ASL) finger-spelling icons. Layout, Features, & Architectural ElementsThe park layout seamlessly loops a high-intensity flow bowl with a highly technical, multi-directional street plaza. A hallmark of the build is the integration of heavy, authentic street materials alongside custom concrete. 1. The Street Plaza & RunsThe street section begins with a flat-ground entry that drops into a long, feature-rich run. The Pan Am Plaza Homage & Repurposed Granite: Hunger salvaged and repurposed massive blocks of real granite from the iconic downtown City-County Building ledges. This granite is utilized throughout the street runs as highly slick, durable ledges, manual pads, and perimeter seating. A standout element is a "2-up, 2-down" stepped planter gap designed as a direct homage to Indy’s legendary, defunct Pan Am Plaza street spot. Obstacle Assortment: The street plaza is packed with highly technical features, including a granite pole jam, a flat bar, a euro-manual setup, an A-frame gap, varied hubba ledges, a giant hip, and two down rails on a central island structure. 2. The Flow BowlThe bowl layout wraps around the northern and western perimeters of the street plaza, offering a deep, continuous transition playground.Structural Details: It features a multi-depth configuration equipped with diverse transition elements, including a steep "Kong Wall" vertical extension, a "throne" seat corner, and smooth camelback center humps for maintaining pumping momentum without pushing. Coping Variants: The bowl mixes standard steel pipe coping with a dedicated section of true pool coping backed by an over-vert pocket for advanced pool-style riding. Memorial Artwork & The "Ebobs" LegacyThe skatepark serves as a living memorial, heavily driven to fruition by the Indy Skatepark Advocates alongside families who lost loved ones to gun violence during the park's multi-year planning and construction phases: The "Ebob" Book Feature: The park’s secondary name honors Ethan "Ebob" Williams, a dedicated local skater, scholar, and Indiana University student who was tragically killed by a stray bullet while visiting New York City in 2020. To honor his duality as a passionate reader and skateboarder, Hunger constructed a massive, completely skateable concrete book feature (functioning as a bank/ledge element) embedded into the street course. The Stuffy Fresh Quarter Pipe: Local skater and artist Kyle Stuffy ("Stuffy Fresh"), who passed away during the park's development timeline, is memorialized via a custom quarter pipe face featuring an acid-stained pattern replicating his signature little tree freshener art motif. Operational Logistics Admission: 100% free and open to all non-motorized wheeled action sports (skateboards, inline skates, BMX, and scooters). Lighting & Hours: Officially open from dawn until dusk. Note that the facility does not feature overhead stadium lighting for night skating. Vibe: Highly celebrated by Midwest travelers for its smooth, fast concrete finish, incredible line continuity, and deeply authentic connection to the Indianapolis skate scene.