Set to open in 2018, the James Beard Public Market will be a daily year-round indoor-outdoor marketplace showcasing Oregon’s bounty while promoting community health, rural and urban economic development, neighborhood revitalization and tourism.
Throughout the last several years, the James Beard Public Market has worked to establish Portland, Oregon, as the only city in the country with the rights to name a market after the city’s most famous chef, James Beard. Often thought of as the father of American cooking, Beard was a Portland native. An early champion of local products and markets, Beard was a true food pioneer and his legacy includes the James Beard Awards – the “Oscars of the food world” and the most coveted honor in the culinary community.
The design for the new James Beard Public Market will rise up in a wing-like form to either side of the Morrison Bridge, acting as a gateway to downtown Portland and creating a recognizable icon at the center of the city. Large doors open up along the entire market facade to a widened sidewalk, allowing guest seating to spill out during good weather. The market stalls are arranged along a pathway that connects the main entrances to the outdoor market. Soaring ceilings clad in natural wood are supported by exposed structural steel columns and trusses, reminiscent of the neighboring bridges.
A generous pedestrian street will run north and south, swelling at center, at the sunniest portion of the site, to create an outdoor room for vendor stalls, seating, and green areas for Pacific Northwest native plantings. On top of the market, an inhabitable green roof splits and folds, forming large clerestories which naturally light the market below. From the upper level of the market, visitors can access the large rooftop terraces with views of the waterfront park, Willamette River, and Mt. Hood in the distance.
The concept was created by Snøhetta, a world-renowned international architecture firm that’s designed numerous globally-recognized public spaces, including the Oslo Opera House, the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion and the recent reconstruction of Times Square.
The James Beard Public Market is a project of the Historic Portland Public Market Foundation, which grew out of a citizen task force convened in 2000. Portlanders from many walks of life met almost monthly for more than two years to create a vision for a public market in Portland. To learn more, visit www.jamesbeardmarket.com.
