Behind the Scenes - Pike Place Market Renovation Tour

I fully admit I'm a bit nerdy about a few things.  An invitation to check out renovations of landmarks or cool places in general make me a little giddy.  Does anyone else see an invite to check out the innards of the Seattle Monorail or the upgrades to the Pike Place Market and start to jump around like a 5 year old getting ready to go to the candy shop?  Right.  Just me.  NERD.  :-) 

I belong to a real estate group called CREW, a women in real estate group that has monthly lunches and different committees.  A few months ago, there was a lunch presentation on all of the seismic, electrical and HVAC upgrades that the market has been going through recently.  At the end of the lunch, the speaker mentioned there would be an upcoming tour for members.....ding, ding, ding!  LOVE IT!  Couldn't wait for the tour to be announced.  Getting to go behind the scenes and check out what great things have been happening for the Market?  Yes, please.

Our tour was led by a project manager for the general contractor on the project.  We visited several areas where they had done significant work, all while the Market continued to operate as normal.  Some tenants were moved to temp locations, other work was being done in non-tenanted areas.  What they've accomplished is phenomenal, considering the shops are local, small operators who depend on the daily traffic of the Market to be successful.

A few pics from the tour:

Two of the fun light fixtures.

Checking out the HVAC equipment on the roof of the Sanitary Market.

Cute fish boy with the Wiener Mobile.

Fun new design work for the fully renovated restrooms. (The old restrooms were SCARY)