Under a small professional services contract, GMK was initially retained by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture to provide architectural support for the installation of a new fountain water feature to be located in the outdoor area adjacent to the Phillips Market Center (PMC) located at the Farmers Market site in Lexington County, SC.

As the project evolved, however, the programming for the project changed to eliminate the fountain water feature, but expanded to include designs for multiple other improvements to the outdoor areas of the venue as an extension of the event space. These elements of the project entail renovation of the existing outdoor lawn behind the rentable PMC venue. The designs call for the lawn to become a fully enclosed outdoor event space with organized landscape, seating, a fire pit, picnic area and open-air pavilion. The entire event area will be enclosed with brick pillars and wooden fencing to create a private and secure space. The solicitation for competitive bids for the outdoor space renovations was issued in late December of 2023, with anticipated construction start in Spring of 2024. The estimated costs of these renovations are approximately $475,000 - $510,000 based on GMK’s Opinion of Probable Cost.