Market Day

 

Inside the Lane County Farmers Market Pavilion, opening day June 4, 2022 (all photos are mine).

For many years, a go-to weekend activity for me and my wife has been heading downtown to grab lunch at the Saturday Market International Food Court (our favorite menu item is Afghani Cuisine’s Qabuli Pilaf) and visiting the Lane County Farmers Market to pick up fresh produce; however, COVID-19 disrupted this comfortable routine. So too did the first phase of the Eugene Town Square redevelopment, which temporarily displaced the Farmers Market to a location on East Fifth Avenue. Yesterday’s opening of the new Lane County Farmers Market Pavilion and Plaza marked the welcome return of the market to its historical location at 8th and Oak. We happily joined thousands of others to experience the market in its new venue on opening day.
 
Of course, I’ve been following and reporting on the reimagining of the Farmers Market as part of a refreshed Eugene Town Square for years now. Most recently, I documented the design and construction progress of the Market Pavilion and Plaza. The new Eugene City Hall and reworking of the southwest and southeast park blocks remain future projects, but if our visit on the first day of the market on the former site of the razed "butterfly lot" parking structure was any indication, it is clear the City of Eugene’s vision of a revitalized Town Square is already being validated.(1)

View from the Market Plaza looking toward the Pavilion.

 
It was a pleasure to stroll through the pavilion and the Market Plaza area on an unseasonably cool and damp Saturday in June. The new building did not clamor for my attention; instead, its simple, commodious form provided an unassuming backdrop for the dozens of vendors (inside and out) selling their locally grown farm products. I suspect this is exactly how the team of FFA Architecture & Interiors and Cameron McCarthy Landscape Architecture & Planning envisioned their design. I know my attention focused more upon the offerings of the various booths. I enjoyed being part of the bustle of others likewise enjoying their time at the market. It was as if the architecture receded from my view, which of course is surprising because I normally cannot avoid seeing any new building firstly through the eyes of an architect.
 
The addition of absorbent wall panels on the west wall of the pavilion’s interior dampened the acoustic reverberance that was very much evident during the construction-period tour I attended a few months ago. During that tour, the roll-up doors were closed and protected behind translucent visqueen. With the market operating, all the generous doors were held open, so the flow and views between the pavilion and the plaza were unimpeded. West Park Street remains an important part of the market, so the design did not scrimp on providing large openings to the pavilion from that side. The polycarbonate skin cladding the upper walls provided ample, glare-free daylight on an overcast day.

The roof structure is comprised of mass-timber panels supported by glulam beams. The floor is polished concrete.

 

The Market Plaza looking east from the Pavilion.

The plaza’s use of decomposed granite may prove slightly problematic. While comfortable underfoot and generally successful at absorbing rainfall, when wet it clings to shoes, which track the material about and into the pavilion.
 
Oddly, an overall impression I had of the new Farmers Market Pavilion and Plaza is that the new facility has been a downtown fixture for years already. My mind says, “I’ve seen this before.” Of course, the farmers market traces its history on this same site back more than a century, but this current incarnation is entirely original. Perhaps I should chalk up my sense of its familiarity to how inevitable and appropriate the market’s new home has turned out to be.
 
It will be interesting to see how the Lane County Farmers Market organization and the City of Eugene program the pavilion and plaza beyond its primary use as a location for small, local farms to sell fresh, nutritious foods. The plan has always been that it will be a multifunction community space.
 
Though yesterday was its first day in operation, the new Market Pavilion and Plaza’s grand opening celebration will take place on Sunday, June 26 between noon and 4:30 PM. That free event will feature live music, food trucks, speakers, information from partner organizations, and family-friendly activities.

(1)  Of course, my statement presumes the City will eventually fully realize that vision, something very much in question at the moment: To Build or To Buy? – Eugene Weekly