Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

Louis Wilson (center), co-owner of Burger in the Square, talks to Lee Quill of Cunningham Quill Architects on Monday.

Rare consensus surfaced Monday when members of the Roanoke City Council met with an architectural company to talk about the future of the historic Roanoke City Market Building.

A three-person team from Cunningham Quill Architects of Washington, D.C., spoke with council members during one stop on a listening tour of sorts Monday.

Later, the team visited the market building and spent about 90 minutes with food court vendors and retailers. There, architect Lee Quill told the businesspeople that his firm recognizes they have experienced stress for a long time while stuck in limbo wondering about the building's future.

"We know you guys have been dealing with a lot down here," he said.

Years of prolonged debate about the building intensified during the past year as the striking new Taubman Museum of Art headed toward its November opening and health inspectors found evidence inside the market building of a mouse infestation.

Now, Quill said, city officials seem committed both to moving forward and to including existing food court vendors and retailers in the design mix.

No, not another study

The city is paying Cunningham Quill to inspect the building's electrical, plumbing, mechanical and other core systems and to assess its structural condition. Quill said this work will provide "the building blocks for the architectural team."

Throughout the day, he described the building as "magnificent" and "amazing" and referenced its "grandeur" and iconic presence downtown.

While meeting with the council, Quill asked questions to define the council's vision for the building's future. He said other key input sources will be consultation with stakeholders and close review of previous studies conducted by other companies or organizations.

Smiling, he hefted one earlier study in his right hand and another in his left.

Quill repeatedly complimented these studies, which he said will help provide one framework for his firm's design work.

"There is tremendous work that has been done," he said.

Consensus

With Quill and his team, council members shared ideas, concerns and opinions. Members seemed to agree unanimously on at least two points and to generally agree on several others.

First, they concurred that any new design and uses for the building should incorporate a food court or some sort of food service.

Councilman Alvin Nash stressed the value of the food vendors.

"They define the market building," Nash said.

Mayor David Bowers agreed.

"We want them to be successful and profitable," he said.

Councilman David Trinkle said vendors' needs for continuing sales could be addressed through phased construction or through lease negotiations once construction ends.

Similarly, Quill told vendors that staged construction, if feasible, could help them stay open during renovations.

Consensus two

The council agreed also that designs for renovations must consider economic conditions.

Councilwoman Gwen Mason said city officials need to avoid "renovation lust," a condition characterized, she said, by wanting to do everything possible during a makeover and wanting it all to be spectacularly done.

"Money is finite, and it certainly is finite this year," Mason said.

Still, Councilman Court Rosen noted that a renovation design should be ambitious enough to be worth doing and that any makeover should create a building that will be vital for decades to come.

Rosen said the architects should identify which of the building's historical features must be retained to qualify for using historic tax credits to help pay for renovations.

Councilman Sherman Lea reiterated his belief that the building's makeover might be eligible to receive federal stimulus package money for infrastructure projects.

Even more agreement

Several council members said they would like to see the market building operate more hours each day and on Sundays. Some favored the idea of outdoor balconies where people could dine above Wall and Market streets.

Rosen and Trinkle suggested that the city, which owns the market building, should get out of the business of managing it, too. Rosen said the building should be self-sustaining and require no city subsidy.

And all seemed to agree that the building's upper floor has great potential as a meeting place, a concert venue and many other uses, both public and private.

Not Paris

During the meeting, Quill said downtown Roanoke was a very different place when he attended Virginia Tech and that vast improvements have occurred since.

Bowers agreed.

He suggested, however, that the market building should reflect the regional culture and not try to convey a false European or New Orleans feel.

Roanoke, Bowers said, competes with cities such as Knoxville and Chattanooga, both in Tennessee, and Asheville, N.C., but not Paris.

He said the historical building should communicate "what we are," recognizing that Roanoke is a Southern, Appalachian city.

Anita Wilson, co-owner of Burger in the Square, said she liked much of what she heard. The question remains, she said, about what will happen to vendors once renovation begins and how they will operate in the interim with mandated month-to-month leases.

Quill said the company hopes to return March 16 with two schematic designs and two cost estimates.