Church Street Marketplace

The mall was initially conceived in 1958 and was built in 1980-81 to a design by Carr, Lynch Associates of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The American Planning Association named the Church Street Marketplace one of America's "Great Public Spaces" for 2008.

The concept of the Church Street Marketplace originated as early as 1958 as part of a series of urban renewal discussions.

By late 1971, Patrick Robins, president of the Downtown Burlington Development Association and local architect Bill Truex (then chairman of the City's Planning Commission) recognized the potential of the mall.

Merchants were allowed full use of the area for display of retail goods and special events were planned.

In March 1979, the City sponsored round table discussions and both local citizens and merchants responded negatively to the idea of a two-level mall.

That firm assumed all engineering tasks and contracted Carr & Lynch Associates of New York City[4] as architects.

From the completion of the Marketplace through the year 2010, retail occupancy had remained above 90% and had held steady even in the midst of the Great Recession.

[5] The mall is largely co-extensive with the Church Street Historic District, which was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, however several of the buildings located on Church Street – including City Hall, Ethan Allen Engine Company No.