News:Â the David Adjaye-designed Wakefield Market Hall in Yorkshire, England, is facing demolition just six years after opening, following news the local council wants to sell the building to a developer and replace it with a cinema.
The 4000-square-metre market hall was the first public project by high-profile London architect David Adjaye, but since opening in 2008 it has struggled to attract enough visitors and has been heavily subsidised by the council.
Property firm Sovereign Land, owner of the nearby Trinity Walk shopping centre, has now put in a bid to redevelop the site and create a new multi-screen cinema complex including restaurants and cafes.
A report recommending the proposals will be voted on by council members early next week. If approved, £100,000 will be set aside to relocate market traders to a new site in the city centre.
"We have to accept that the market hall has not worked as well as we would have liked," said councillor Denise Jeffery, the cabinet member for regeneration and economic growth. "But we now have an exciting opportunity to inject something new into our city centre, which we believe will boost the night-time as well as the daytime economy, bringing more jobs and investment into the district."
She continued: "This also gives us the chance to deliver our market offer in a different way and we want to work with traders to help relocate their businesses to other premises should they so wish. The proposed relocation of the outdoor market to the precinct will enhance it, make sure it is sustainable and create a vibrant link between the Ridings and Trinity Walk."
Adjaye designed the hall to replace a run-down indoor market from the 1960s, but it struggled to attract the same footfall, losing out to rival markets in nearby Pontefract and Castleford.
Just a year after opening, a council committee was hired solve "design flaws" that included substandard paving and inadequate drainage in the food hall. Committee member Janice Haigh criticised the layout and said "a crane with one of those demolition balls" would be the best solution.