July 26, 2007
Move To Temporary Building at Eastern Market Delayed
Construction of the temporary building at Eastern Market has begun, though somewhat behind schedule. The Examiner reports that the estimated opening date of the temporary building that will house the South Market vendors has been pushed back to mid-August, even though Mayor Fenty promised the vendors they'd have a new home by the end of July. According to the article, delays in construction have been caused by delays in manufacturing of the steel for the building. The Mayor had hoped to have the building up by July 15, but workers just started installing the frame on Monday. At last night's Eastern Market Advisory Committee Meeting, D.C.'s Office of Property Management told vendors that the move in date had been pushed back even farther: to August 25.
Reportedly workers now have all the parts for the building, and so construction of the structure itself should proceed fairly quickly. Internal infrastructure may be a different story, however. "We might have to wait a little while for things like our counters and coolers," Mike Bowers of Bowers Fancy Dairy Products told DCist. "Once we get all of our stuff in, we'll have to wait for inspections and everything."
It is the city's intention to put all 13 market vendors and the Market Lunch café from the South Hall into the temporary market, which has been termed the "East Hall." The construction team was scheduled to start placing the air conditioning system—a new, and welcome, addition from the South Hall—today.
Photo of temporary building construction by ShannonC from saveeasternmarket.org
We hope the move of the South Hall vendors to the temporary market will bring some sense of normalcy back to Eastern Market. Since the April 30 fire, business has been very slow for the arts and crafts vendors, the vendors of Saturday and Sunday's farmers line, and for those inside vendors who have set up stands outside Tuesday through Sunday. Funds for the market and support of its vendors continue to come from both community and governmental sources; the Capitol Hill Community Foundation has raised $385,000 as of July 17, and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton has included a $131,000 earmark for the Market in the FY 2008 Financial Services and General Government Operations appropriations bill (HR 2829). Please note that those funds weren't included in the Senate version, so the funding's fate will be decided in the upcoming conference negotiations.
The Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet with the Market vendors at 3:30 p.m. today for further discussion on the temporary building, vendor rents, and to discuss any concerns the vendors may raise.
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Why not put all that energy, time and material into a faster reconstruction of the original Eastern Market?
@1
Well, the current situation with vendors on both sides of the street and constantly changing positions is chaotic and untenable. Work on the original market is happening now, too, so it's not as if that has been shelved until the temporary site is done. If you go by the market, you'll see that there is some work being done on the roof already. I think the city is working as fast as it can on the South Hall, though, and hope to have it completed by 2009.
I don't understand how Extreme Home Makeover can tear down, build and furnish a completely new house in 7 days, yet an open warehouse will take over a year.
Eastern Market is far from "an open warehouse" -- it is a historic structure with lots on internal infrastructure that needs to be replace/upgraded/installed. Nothing that is being done to the temporary structure is taking effort away from the restoration. And the temp structure is needed to make sure that the vendors (and the community) have a place to go. It may be a couple of weeks late, but the miracle is that the temp market should be up and running within 4 months of the fire.
You are both right. Eastern Market is a historic structure. But it's also basically a giant warehouse.
The brick walls are fine. It'll need a new roof, windows, and completely new electric, plumbing, etc.
But that shouldn't take years. And it sure as heck shouldn't cost $30 million.
Hillman, no offense, but you don't know what you're talking about. Being a historic structure, the rehab and rebuilding needs to be strictly within historic parameters -- e.g., a slate roof rather than an asphalt one (that's a few million right there), completely accurate window sashes and frames, completely new trusses to hold up the slate roof which match the historically-significant ones which were damaged in the fire, etc. And then add to all that a new HVAC system and a sprinkler system, and it's clear why it'll take a little while and cost some money.
If the Hill wanted -- and the city would permit -- a generic, tin-roof warehouse, it could get done instantly. But it would suck horribly, and wouldn't be anything like the Market that has anchored the neighborhood for the past century.
@3: TV is fake. If they had to wait for building inspections, permits, contractors, supplies, SHPO, etc., it would not take 7 days.
Whether it takes one day, or one year, it is still costing $30 Million dollars to rebuild a place that housed 14 vendors. Give each vendor $2 million and let them open up their own stores anywhere they want. For that price they could each own an entire building and you would still have $2 Million left over to spread around among the hundreds of thousands of DC residents who have never and will never set foot in Eastern Market.