Comments on: Plan for Portland market goes against grain

By: Jarred

Jarred — Tue, 18 May 2010 09:26:49 +0000

I think everyone is forgetting the very obvious example of Granville Island Market in Vancouver BC Perhaps the most successful public market in North America built new buildings for the market on a former industry site next to downtown. Google granville island market and use google image search rather than web search…or better yet go visit, its an amazing place filled with life, multicultural venders , food stands, restaurants everything you can imagine. If Portland uses Granville Island as a model it will be a stunning success.

By: Nick Bjork

Nick Bjork — Tue, 04 May 2010 23:08:40 +0000

Dave,
You are right that the undeveloped land was designated for farmers market use around 1907. As a result several different markets popped up over the next few years. For years attempts were made to combine all the various markets into one. In the 1970s, the original space was designated a historic property and was rennovated and restored to reflect the original appeal of the market. While the building wasn’t re-purposed, it was rennovated to become a single, indoor market hall. While Pike’s Place may fall out of the realm of repurposed buildings becoming markets, my thesis was that the James Beard Market would be the first newly constructed market hall in decades. Pikes Place, as is the case with several other historic markets in historic towns, has always been a market. But, if you look at towns that didn’t have market halls, or the historic one was torn down, the new market hall was placed in a historically repurposed building. Thanks for reading and providing your input.

By: Dave B

Dave B — Tue, 04 May 2010 22:50:45 +0000

You need to do more research regarding your statement about the Pike Place Market. It was built SPECIFICALLY for use as a Farmers Market around 1907-11. The area occupied by the market today was open land at the turn of the last century and was designated as the market site. Wikipedia has all of this information and knowing this sort of blow a hole in your “thesis statement”. Remember the original market that stood where Waterfront Park is was also built SPECIFICALLY for use as a framers market….
Please, do some simple research on your subject before you make sweeping statements that really don’t reflect the actual history of farmer’s markets in the US….

By: Nick Bjork

Nick Bjork — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:08:11 +0000

Robert makes a very good point. The Redding Terminal Market has always been a market on the ground floor of the terminal. The upstairs (where the trains left from) was converted into a convention center and the market remained in the same location. So, the market is in a historic building (as it has always been) but the building wasn’t repurposed for the market, it was repurposed for the convention center.

Also, Robert was just telling me on the phone about how the farmers would bring the things they sold in the market to town by train. That is why it was so convienent to have a market under the train station. If someone in town needed some supplies from the farmers, the farmer would just take the order and put it on the train for the person. It is interesting to note that the idea of placing market halls in a space that is more of a through-way then a destination has been around for centuries. That idea is still being used today.

By: Robert Libkind

Robert Libkind — Tue, 04 May 2010 19:01:30 +0000

A little more perspective on “repurposing” and the Reading Terminal Market. It was the train shed above the market, not the market itself, that has been repurposed. Today the second level train shed where commuters caught the Chestnut Hill Local serves as the grand hall entrance to the Pennsylvania Convention Center.

By: Robert Libkind

Robert Libkind — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:58:52 +0000

I wish Portland consumers well in seeking to create an indoor public market. But be aware that Philadelphia’s Reading Terminal Market was not, contrary to the article’s and Kelly Williams’ assertion, located in a repurposed public building.

The Reading Terminal Market is located under what until 1985 served as the Philadelphia terminus of the Reading Company’s railroad, familiar to all who have played Monopoly. When the Reading Terminal was built the plans specifically incorporated a space for vendors from two existing markets who were to be displaced by the construction of the grand railway edifice. Indeed, the Reading Terminal Market began operation in 1982 under the terminal’s train shed months before the first train arrived upstairs the following year.

The Reading Terminal Market not only then housed space for 800 merchants in 78,000 square feet of selling space, but a half million cubic feet of refrigerated space (kept at 15-25 degrees for meat and poultry, 34 degrees for producing) using the brine and ammonia cooling technology of the time.

Hardly repurposed, the Reading Terminal Market was purposedly built.

By: poncho

poncho — Tue, 04 May 2010 07:07:52 +0000

hopefully those cloverleafs are coming out