Six WSU students apply their education to solve real-world problems for a local market.

The third-year landscape architecture students of the Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture worked with local communities as part of their class curriculum in order to gain experience in their major.

“Our professors will get contacted from different people who have these project ideas, and they decide which ones they want in their studio,” third-year architecture student Philip VanDevanter said. “So this semester we’re working on the Moscow Farmers Market for the Farmers Market Commission.”

The students partnered with the Moscow Farmers Market to help them visualize the ideas of the community members as well as implement their own ideas in order to improve upon the busy market, VanDevanter said.

The team began by doing a site analysis, noting that certain shops are cut off from the main corridor of the market, VanDevanter said. Observing when shops open on Main Street, they analyzed the circulation patterns of customers flowing through the market.

Shade also played a huge role in designs, as produce vendors require a lot of shade to keep their products as fresh as possible, especially on hot, sunny days. From the site analysis, they identified three spaces to focus on for the renovation, VanDevanter said.

“Some parts of the market have problems with shade – they don’t get enough of it – while other parts are totally fine with shade,” third-year landscape architecture student Nathan McCammant said.

Each member of the group experienced different challenges as they all played a unique role in the design process. Working with a much broader community than before, figuring out how to incorporate everyone’s ideas created a challenge.

The market is already very well laid out to begin with, so coming up with new ideas became difficult at times, VanDevanter said.

“It’s exciting because they’re just starting into their planning process,” VanDevanter said, “and we can help give them a visualization of some of the things that they had been thinking for a long time.”

While having already spoken with some of the commission members beforehand, the students said they remain enthusiastic at the prospect of displaying their hard work.

The team will present their designs to the Farmer’s Market Commission today at 4 p.m. Their designs will be open for public view at the Third Street Gallery in Moscow City Hall from Sept. 19 – Oct. 3.