Filed under: videos | Tags: Food, Food Distribution Centers, Hunts Point, New York City, Project for Public Spaces, video
Well its not really new (yet), but as part of a first time 1 million dollar marketing campaign culminating in the recent launch of a new website, New York City’s Hunt’s Point Terminal Market has officially been (re)branded. Announced earlier last month, the wholesale market’s campaign will attempt to reintroduce and re-frame the market to the city, to the region, and to the world.
The timing of this campaign comes as no surprise as the wholesale market’s facilities and its business have been deteriorating ever since it moved to Hunt’s Point after abandoning Washington Market (previously on the former World Trade Center site) in 1962. While the current spacious 60 acre site in the south Bronx has granted the market larger facilities, quicker access to regional and global transportation networks, and greater volumes of produce exchange, the siting of the market in a poor and industrial neighborhood at the cities hinterlands has possibly led to a loss of public visibility and support.
With the exception of a few modest news clips around holiday feast seasons, the only real press the market has ever gotten was the uncovering of a decade-long fraud scandal where USDA inspectors were being bribed to cheat the farmers supplying the market.
In addition to this bad press the market has been requesting funding to go ahead with facilities improvement that have yet to be granted by city (which leases the market property) state, or federal governments. Things have gotten so bad that as recently as 2008, there was speculation that the market might leave the city and reestablish itself in New Jersey. The nearly 50 year-old facility is congested, out of date, and struggles to comply with modern cold-chain standards. Wholesale fresh food markets, such as Hunt’s Point, have been under pressure for decades as expanding supermarket and hypermarket corporations such as Tesco, Walmart, and Kroger have began dominating the food system and rapidly consolidating, innovating, and automating the distribution process. In addition to competition from vertically integrated supermarkets, the new soon to open 700,000 sq. ft. state-of-the-art Philadelphia Wholesale Produce Market (for photos see this earlier post) is expected to further compete with Hunt’s Point for business. Clearly the pressure is on, and for now this marketing campaign is the market’s most achievable answer.
Website screenshot:
The “New” Hunts Point Produce Market and My Thesis
From the beginning of my thesis research Hunts Point has always been a potential site. Although I have delayed detailed site analysis, the site has been the door into my understanding of fresh food logistics. When I first discovered it in a post on Mexico City’s produce market in Nicola Twilley’s blog edible geography, I was amazed that such a massive and essential facility in the daily life of New York City could exist unnoticed by its citizens… this unnoticing is of course the work of logistics (see this earlier post). Upon further research over the summer it was evident that the market’s blurred public/private condition has led to poor funding and eventual facility deterioration. Given my architectural knowledge of the historic role of public market buildings in civic life, I could not help but wonder how this market plays a role in that lineage. When did the market become a neglected logistical space? What caused this recent transition and what futures might it hypothesize.
I suppose my innitial instincts were not misplaced. Indeed Hunt’s Point has an image problem (for better or worse image is half of the architectural problem), and if it is going to survive and prosper along with the fresh food system of New York, it needs revamping. While much of this revamping will occur through policy and economics, ultimately the built facilities that these forces are manifested in will play a critical role in the markets evolution and success.
Although I have been expecting the Hunts Point Produce Market’s new marketing campaign for some time, I am still not entirely sure how to react to it in the context of my project. Since the marketing campaign calls upon the citizens of New York City (the public) and the farmers and produce distributors from around the world to come out to the market, I wonder how a facility that was not designed to engage the public will perform. Perhaps this focuses my thesis on further analysis of the differences between public architecture and logistical architecture, spaces designed for people and spaces designed for commodities.
A more pessimistic response to the marketing campaign would be to say the whistle has been blown… here I have been sitting on one of New York City’s best kept secrets and now its out. In addition to the new website, commercials advertising the market will be played on cable throughout the tri-state area. Soon most New Yorker’s will at least know of Hunt’s Point’s existence. Since I will not be fully analyzing the Hunt’s Point site until next semester, I could take the stance that I showed up late to the party and thus the site has less to offer… less to expose. I am leaning towards the former.
Regardless of whether my eventual design project looks to expose Hunts Point’s role in New York City’s food system, or whether it attempts to somehow resolve some of the conflicting issues of landscape and building on the site, for now I certainly appreciate the surge of press and video accompanying this new marketing campaign.
Video: 1
This first promotional video created by Erik West for the marketing campaign is by far my favorite. Upbeat and simply visual it certainly glorifies the logistical spectacle of the market. The video also focuses on a critical point… time and programming. Much of the hustle and bustle of logistics takes place in the early morning hours. While goods are moved throughout the day, the early morning peak is intended to allow for stores and restaurants to be stocked throughout the day.
Video: 2
This second promotional video by Erik West focuses more on the perspective of retailers who buy their product (fruits and vegetables) from Hunts Point.
Video: 3
The third promotional video is more lengthy and comprehensive with narration by the market’s new TV spokesperson Tony Tantillo.
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Firstly – it is interesting that the Hunt’s Point website there are no images [pictures/drawings] of the buildings or place – only of the food and people. I think your project understands this point exactly – the paradox of marketing and absorbing public traffic to the place but no realization of the architectural reality of that.
Secondly – you basically allude to this being a cosmetic job. The problem with hunt’s point is that the buildings and environment and that the people who currently operate their are mainly logistical – not necessarily a publicly social venue. An image problem. I think a stronger connection if thus intended should be made between the spaces of commodity, spaces of human, and the image of the intersection of both.
Thirdly – just an absurd realization that distribution centers ‘compete for competition’. Distribution centers hold our food. And yet they are completely part of the local/global economic neoliberal system of competitive market production. It is a strange thought – our food is housed in competitive warehouses – where if they do not maintain competitiveness – the physical space of our food no longer exists – we still have food – but not from that location. It is interesting that water, works very similar to your thesis, but at points such as this is is quite different. Political power dictates competitiveness, but the logistical space of water can not easily transform or change as it is not a metal shed with moving trucks – quite ironic in its own way.
Comment by Timothy Gale December 3, 2010 @ 4:08 am[...] Site Swap: One possible proposal is to move the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center (or simply the produce market) to an alternative site, deeming the current site unfit due to its, distance from primary 1) Site [...]
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