A new home for Saturday Market
Yesterday evening, I left the excellent Mercury ten year anniversary party, where I could have enjoyed snacks and beverages while continuing to chat with interesting, bright, vivacious people, to attend the Citywide Parks Team and listen to presentations on Systems Development Charges, and moving Saturday Market. There were interesting, bright, vivacious people at the latter, too – but no food or drink. Lots of information, though, some of which I’ll share today – the Saturday Market part. The rest will have to wait until I have time to transcribe it all.
Saturday Market must move because the surface parking lots on which it currently operates are going to be redeveloped. It will move to land owned by the City, for a permanent home by the Willamette River. The Naito family’s parking lot plans, University of Oregon going into the White Stag building, and Mercy Corps’ world headquarters moving to SW 1st/Ankeny, are some of the final projects in the Downtown Waterfront Urban Renewal Area. The Portland Development Commission (PDC) has allocated the final $42m from/for the district. Almost all the money for the Saturday Market relocation is coming from PDC – there is no Portland Parks contribution. One partner citizens will be pleased to hear about is the Bureau of Environmental Services, which is contributing $207,270 for the project. The reason you’ll be pleased is because that money was allocated in the Big Pipe project to return Waterfront Park to its previous condition after the installation – but of course that would have been a waste to put it back the way it was, only to tear it up and change it in the Ankeny Plaza project later. Instead, Environmental Services is allocating the same amount of money to build the new look. Good to see two bureaus coordinating their activities.
The Walker-Macy firm of landscape architects was chosen by a committee of stakeholders including neighbors, to design the project. Diagrams and concepts are shown in the Open House presentation (pdf). The main features are:
* A large circular plaza that will eventually project over the river (that part is designed but not yet funded, although a component of it, raising the height of the sea wall in the area, is a Federal Emergency Management Agency requirement);
* A recreational/interactive fountain to the south that planners hope will tie in to (and function like) the Salmon Street Springs and to an avenue of street water features west to the US Bank building; and
* A pair of rectangular shelters over the area between the plaza and the Burnside Bridge, to house the Market.
The design of the shelters is a matter of taste; I don’t especially care for the way they look, reminiscent of a modern aircraft hanger rather than a historic marketplace. But their functioning seems superbly thought through. They may have retractible pool-cover-type roofs, to keep rain off when needed and allow light through when not. And to address concerns that a structure in that location would become a de facto camp for homeless people, the area is designed so that when not in use for the Market or other public assembly functions, it can be flooded and become a second water feature/wading pool. Conversely, the southerly fountain can be shut off and drained for large events such as concerts, allowing more people to fit into the plaza. Similarly thoughtful attention is being paid to provision of bathroom facilities that will be safe and convenient for both Saturday Market and other event patrons, and people needing restrooms near the Greenway any time of the day or night. A solution on that aspect of the project has not yet been finalized.
A large model of the concept for the area may be viewed in the lobby of the US Bank building through mid-July. Open houses and a comment period have already been held, but more comments will be accepted and considered by the citizen/stakeholders committee guiding the process (e-mail addresses are in the pdf file presentation linked above). The designs will be reviewed by the Historic Landmarks Commission prior to construction, since the area is in a National Historic District and the adjacent Ankeny Pump Station is a designated Historic Landmark. Plans call for removing the concrete wall and razor wire around the pump station, and making it more a feature of the plaza area. If both the historic approvals and those of Greenway Review are obtained in a timely manner, the project team hopes to start construction this December. Saturday Market would remain in its current location through Christmas 2007, and might be in its new location a year later.
This project uses Urban Renewal Area (URA) money that would otherwise go to yet more subsidies to private developers. The total URA funding has already been decided; this is one of the few projects in the area which most directly benefits the general public visiting it. I doubt even the grumpiest of anti-government, anti-tax commenters could oppose this project at this time, given that decisions on the URA itself are already final. Even if, like me, you wonder about the design of the shelters in relation to the historic district and National Landmarks nearby.