I'm trying to hold off myself, it's just hard to ignore where it's at. I'd also say that in addition to the disappointment with the facade, I'm disappointed with cutting the outdoor pavillion, community kitchen, and raising the rates. And for those things I don't have to wait for a finished product to be disappointed as they've already been announced as final decisions.
I'm a little disappointed that the kitchen and pavilion were dropped from the plans, but if the Market proves viable, it's fairly likely that those will be added at a later date, along with an expansion. If the market does not succeed then I guess we will be left wondering if those things would have made a difference. It is my opinion that the market will very likely prove to be successful, and that at some point in the near future, it will be expanded and improved out of necessity.
I won't belabour the point, any longer, after this, but it's ridiculous for the "wait and see" crowd to chide anyone. This thing is basically 3/4 of the way done. It'll be open in just over two months, from now. For all intents and purposes, the exterior is done. And, let me be clear about one more thing, most people won't even care about the exterior, but that doesn't mean anything for us that do pay attention to details. We were sold a bill of goods we aren't getting, period. We just spent $1.6 million for a glorified sheet-metal polebarn to replace a larger, historically significant brick-and-stone market. This isn't about opposing a new city market, it's about doing project rights and honestly, and we've been poorly served by LEPFA and Kares Construction (they should have scrounged up the extra half-million or so, or held off until they found it to get the likes of Christman to produce a quality product), to say the very least.
We've got this brilliant Accident Fund campus renovation on the other side, new and improved boardwalks and river trails, even a nice-looking MSP Headquarters for as poorly as it's going to use it's site, and amongst all of that, the crowning jewel was supposed to be a quality city market. It's not; it won't be; it can't be. That's it; I'm done.
Well, last night I went over to take a look at the progress of the construction and it looked to me like the south west facing wall has a lot of bracing on the interior that could become cutouts for windows so I'm still reserving judgment until its a finished product.
I noticed the same bracing, but the lack of windows is not what I'm worried about. From what I can tell there will be plenty of windows on the building, and perhaps some other ornamentation on the facade.
After ogling the riverfront with Hooper from the commanding heights of the new market, I went down to the river to look back up at the market with two Lansing architects, Rick McKinstry and Francis Wilmore of Architectural Solutions Limited.
First, we watched workers slap glass walls on the modernistic annex to the redeveloped Ottawa Power Station. Then we swiveled our heads to the east bank.
It took McKinstry less than two minutes to say the “b” word.
“It looks like a pole barn,” he said. “This is something you would see in an outlying rural community.”
Wilmore said he liked the site and position of the market, facing downtown.
“But it’s so standardized,” he said. “There’s no excitement there. It’s a sad missed opportunity.”
McKinstry said the city could “definitely” have done better, even within its budget.
“It lacks downtown presence, especially being across the river from such a monumental development,” he said. Hooper admitted the building is “functional.”
...
Vanderklok agreed to talk to City Pulse last week, but two days later he told me the city asked him not to, because of its confidentiality agreement with Studio Intrigue.
The market’s money troubles deepened when the project ran into unforeseen problems under the ground. Crews running a water main to the building ran into an old scale once used to weigh railroad cars. Another crew found an old brick foundry chimney buried under Museum Drive.
Hooper said the debris and soil contained mercury and arsenic from old plating factories in the area.
“All that material just can’t be taken to the landfill,” Hooper said. “It has to be taken to Granger’s contaminated soil area.”
Civil engineers told Keith the old scale might create a sinkhole under the parking lot or interfere with drainage.
According to Keith, soil-related costs, including buildup and cleanup, ate up “a substantial part of the budget” for the new market, between $200,000 and $300,000.
In summer 2009, the design team went back to the drawing board to cut costs. (Keith called it “value engineering.”) The 80-foot-wide building was shortened from 166 to 139 feet long, reducing the area from 13,500 to 11,100 square feet. A community kitchen for cooking demonstrations and other events was taken out. A planned mezzanine, or partial second floor, was taken out. (An elevator shaft, elevator pit and control room are in place and ready for duty, should the market grow in the future.) A pavilion for covered outdoor seating and a plan for geothermal heating were also eliminated. Hooper said the geothermal system would have paid for itself in 14 years, but the capital outlay was just too much.
...
For his part, Hooper is ready to invite the city to a slow-motion barn raising. “If the people of Lansing decide the building would be better with bricks, all right, let’s have a fundraiser,” he said. “Music and cash bar, $10 cover charge, all proceeds going to brick fascia on the market.”
But Hooper acknowledged the building isn’t what he envisioned.
“The city had a great opportunity to put in something that’s going to last for generations,” Hooper said. “That’s the short-sightedness I see here.”
Here's what I'm wondering - How much, if anything, would the city have saved if the new market project hadn't been set aside for union-only shops? When you eliminate competition among contractors, costs inevitably are going to go up. But this was a project labor agreement job - which, despite what union leaders say publicly - essentially shuts out any contractor that doesn't use union labor (regardess of employees' pay and benefits).
City Pulse ignored that question and dealt only with the higher costs for things like contamination.
Would that have paid for the bigger footprint? The kitchen? The brick? The pavilion?
Of course it was politically easier to go with a PLA. Buildings trades unions have been all over this community picketing projects because they don't use "local" labor (when what they really mean is union labor).
I hope the old adage "never judge a book by its cover" (though I'm not willing to concede that the exterior will look "bad" when all is said than done) is taken into account by the buying public. The new market will be better, it'll have more of a "stop by and hang out" ambiance, and the whole riverfront will be a special gathering place for the community. I'm excited for the soft opening, especially the better hours!
I'm sure they could have saved some money by not restricting themselves to union labor. I personally have never supported the union attitude that they are always the better choice. I think free market is always best, and the government shouldn't feel obligated to cater to certain groups, especially when it hurts the taxpayers.
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We've got this brilliant Accident Fund campus renovation on the other side, new and improved boardwalks and river trails, even a nice-looking MSP Headquarters for as poorly as it's going to use it's site, and amongst all of that, the crowning jewel was supposed to be a quality city market. It's not; it won't be; it can't be. That's it; I'm done.
City Pulse ignored that question and dealt only with the higher costs for things like contamination.
Would that have paid for the bigger footprint? The kitchen? The brick? The pavilion?
Of course it was politically easier to go with a PLA. Buildings trades unions have been all over this community picketing projects because they don't use "local" labor (when what they really mean is union labor).