'Fantastic' Plan for New Del Ray Market Square

Efforts are underway to revamp the corner of Mt. Vernon and E. Oxford Avenues from an unremarkable parking lot into a defined community gathering spot that supporters call Del Ray Market Square.

The corner lot belongs to the City of Alexandria and, since 1994, has hosted the Del Ray Farmers' Market every Saturday. It's also used frequently by community organizers for holiday and neighborhood events like Art on the Avenue and First Thursdays. 

Proponents of the plan say the site acts as a de facto town square now, but they want to make it look like one as well. 

"Del Ray is lucky because the entire Avenue is really a gathering spot, but this will make it look like a public gathering spot," said Katherine Glennon, a Del Ray resident and member of the city's public art committee. 

Designed by architecture and design students from Virginia Tech, the plan maintains the parking lot, though it eliminates up to two of the 13 spots to make room for covered bike parking and an expanded pedestrian area. It also raises the lot to the level of the sidewalk so people with strollers, bikes or wheelchairs can move uninterrupted between the parking lot and sidewalks. 

The most dramatic change, however, calls for the construction of a covered walkway that would run parallel to E. Oxford Avenue and act as a "gateway" to the market. The building incorporates the Metro bus stop on Mt. Vernon Avenue and the newspaper racks. Its V-shaped roof would collect water and funnel it to a rain garden behind the bus stop. It also would include photovoltaic panels to collect energy that would be added to the city grid to cover the use of new security lighting, electric scales and refrigeration for the farmers and to charge electric cars. 

Maya Contreras, a development planner in the city's Planning and Zoning Department, has been meeting with proponents of the plan for the past year. She said she doesn't know of any other project in Alexandria that involves greening a parking lot like this.  

"I think it's fantastic," she said. "It's a very visible corner and there are a lot of people there on a regular basis."

Under the plan, a long, serpentine, concrete bench parallel to Mt. Vernon Avenue would replace two wooden picnic benches. And a piece of public art would sit near the corner of the lot that abuts the State Farm Insurance Building.

Pat Miller, the co-owner of and market master for the farmers market, said the covered walkway would be especially useful for smaller farmers who now share space beneath one tent and tend to get overlooked. They would have more prominence under the walkway, she said. 

Miller is excited about the rain collection aspect of the roof as well because now it's difficult to keep plants adequately watered at the site. Market officials recently planted a variety of sunflowers to honor , one of the original market vendors who died in the spring, but Miller said it has been a struggle to keep them watered. 

This is the first story in a four-part series about the proposed Del Ray Market Square.