(Credits: Envision Architects via Glens Falls, 2022)
(Credits: Envision Architects via Glens Falls, 2022)
(Credit: Envision Architects via Glens Falls, 2022)
(Credit: Steve Thurston, 2022)
[Click or tap on the photos to read more.]
Envision Architects has redesigned what will be the Market Square Building on South Street, Glens Falls Director of Economic Development Jeff Flagg told the Glens Falls Common Council at their meeting Tuesday, April 12. The city is not releasing the designs to the public until Mayor Bill Collins has a chance to review them. He is on vacation in Ireland this week and is expected back on Monday.
The design, named “Yellow Birch Leaf” because of its shape when seen from above, is more of a pavilion with slatted walls than it is a building. The walls pivot up, turning the slatted walls into a lattice-like roof around the perimeter of the pavilion. The slats in the walls can also be turned, like closing the louvers on a set of shutters, creating a wind break and semi-solid walls so that the space can be heated in colder weather. Also on site will be a small event space.
If approved, the birch leaf pavilion will be constructed on what is now an open dirt space owned by the city on South Street in Glens Falls. The city will use Downtown Redevelopment Initiative funds to build the building. At the meeting Tuesday, the city council approved a $46,210 payment of DRI funding to Envision Architects for the revised design services. This is the third design of the building.
The original building was much larger, was largely walled with glass, and came in at about $6.5 million. Even a modestly redesigned building was at least $5 million. The hope is that this building will come in at $2.5 to $3 million, the amount budgeted for the project originally, Flagg and Mayor Bill Collins have said.
Pandemic-fueled inflation and realistic estimates of a full construction of the earlier drafts have forced the city to pare back its plans for the location.
The first vision for the building was simply to be a year-round farmers market. It will still be that now, but will also likely be the home to the holiday-time Christkindlmarkt, a German-style, outdoor holiday bazaar. Many other uses are planned and have been discussed in various city council meetings.
Although the city has sold two buildings next door to Bonacio Construction, the plan is to lease back the first floor of one building and use it as an "incubator space," most likely a commercial-grade kitchen for people and companies to use. The pathways and open space on the city-owned pavilion site will work with the entrances and patios of the privately-owned buildings next door.
Envision’s next steps will be to create the full construction documents for the pavilion.
[Read more about South Street here.]
Correction: We offered the wrong date for the Common Council meeting. It was April 12, 2022.