Watershed Market this weekend
In a career path that has taken her across three continents and multiple architectural projects, Audrey Trotti, Ph.D., now has her sights on a long-term neighborhood diversity project. Watershed Market will have a Holkiday Market this Saturday, December 6.
Watershed Market seeks to bring together “responsible consumers who are part of a community,” says Trotti in a phone conversation with Free Press Houston. “Bring bikes.” People can also bring donations like pop-open canned fruit for the Food Bank.
Watershed Market will offer shopping, local musicians, food, artisans, and innovative product makers informs a mission statement on their website. The vendors are part of the GLASIR criteria, an acronym for Green, Local, Adaptive, Sustainable, Innovative and Reuse services.
“We’re offering a traditional place for people to meet, like an old-world style marketplace. It’s diverse, everything from olive oil to acupuncture; 60 vendors,” adds Trotti. Watershed Marketis is close to BBVA Compass Stadium and adjacent to the International Promenade. The path from the stadium to Polk Street has been lined with a couple of hundred trees.
Dr. Trotti, whose parents are from Argentina, was raised in The Montrose and studied architecture and environmental design at as an undergraduate at the University of Houston. In 1997, Trotti went to the United Kingdom for a decade and completed her Masters in Building Conservation at York University, and Doctorate in Architecture at The University of Huddersfield. “Houston is still a young city. There’s a very unique vernacular architecture to Houston,” says Trotti.
One previous project that Trotti was involved in was the renovation of a bistro in the historic W.L. Foley Building downtown (200 block of Travis), which is now Hearsay Bistro. Trotti remarks that her current concept is “about finding the right partnership and providing needs for the neighborhood. It’s about building roots.”
Watershed Market is located in East Downtown, or EaDo, at 2322 Polk St. Some of the vendors include D&M Gourmet Foods; Bravado Spice Company; Houston Ayurveda Center; Bits and Bobs; Lovecraft; and the Billy Pilgrim Traveling Library (hats off to Slaughterhouse Five). The day starts at 10 am.
— Michael Bergeron
