Grand Rapids Downtown Market featured in Architectural Record

The Grand Rapids Downtown Market is a mixed-use facility that incorporates all aspects of local food production, from growth in the large greenhouses on the second floor to distribution in the “open air” market, and education about local produce in public test kitchens.

The Lighting Practice teamed with architect Hugh Boyd to develop the lighting system for this sustainably focused market. TLP used tracks with LED retrofit lamps for the majority of the market lighting. Energy efficient fluorescent sources are used in office and support areas throughout.

Grand Rapids Downtown Market – Grand Rapids, Michigan

Architectural Record | Lydia Lee

The Grand Rapids Downtown Market is a fantasyland of eats: the 132,000-square-foot three-level building offers bread from a wood-fired oven, charcuterie sourced from nearby farms, and other locavore delights. It is also a dream come true from the perspective of urban planning and local business, since its success indicates the community can achieve such goals as supporting local farmers and revitalizing a neglected industrial area at one stroke. During its first year, the market generated 215 new jobs and $5 million in retail sales and spurred conversion of two neighboring warehouses into mixed-use projects with 170 housing units.

Montclair, New Jersey-based architect Hugh Boyd has made a specialty of farmers’ markets and indoor market halls. Of his 50 similar projects over 30 years, the $32 million Grand Rapids Downtown Market is the largest and most ambitious. “The diversity of the program is unique, and it was a challenge to get the entire program to work,” he says of the undertaking. Keeping budget in mind, Boyd conceived a warehouse of steel-and-metal decking, with wood accents whose warmth and craftsmanship underscore the artisanal nature of the businesses within.

Located in a somewhat blighted neighborhood south of downtown, the building commands attention with a rooftop greenhouse. Illuminated at night, the volume is visible from US Highway 131, a major link between Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, Michigan. In a similar vein, the street-level market hall allows hungry shoppers to glimpse producers like the bakers at Field & Fire Bakery turning out loaves of bread behind a glass wall. The ground floor’s interior features a grand stair leading to the greenhouse (which doubles as event space), as well as a banquet room, and a terrace overlooking the city. This upper level also includes a kitchen incubator for new businesses plus a teaching kitchen that accommodates kids, with custom adjustable-height stations powered by hydraulics, while a smaller third floor provides office space for culinary start-ups. A traditional open-air farmers’ market is housed in a long shed adjacent to the LEED Gold–certified building.