The St. John’s Community Market site was established from a former metro bus garage which FMA worked with the City of St. John’s to identify. What was once a functional home for the storage and maintenance of buses, was identified as an ideal location for a new community gathering hub, the St. John’s Community Market. The existing structure offered a large open space with high ceilings, allowing for utilization of the existing building shell which reduced construction costs. This site is located in the central area of St. John’s, in a highly visible public location. The building sits on the north end of a major city sports and leisure corridor (Crosbie Road Park and Wishingwell Park). The site offers on site parking and off site nearby parking at the neighboring taxation center, where people from outside the immediate district could drive to the site.

The primary challenge of a community market is in user consultation, as each market has varying requirements and clientele. We met with the St. John’s Community Market Cooperative for many design charettes and produced various layout options to arrive at one that best met their needs. The key to the success of this market was to allow for flexibility so the market could ‘push and shove’ it’s venues to fit accordingly. Services had to be installed for flexible usage needs of vendors. Cooking was planed as flexible as possible but permanent, as required, for code compliance.
The unused space of the former Metro bus building to the west and south remains unplanned at this time. This was an important consideration through use consultation, to offer a sensible space for expansion to the market should the need arise. Expansion of markets is more the norm than the exception, so this design plans for the future.