Chicago's French Market - meh

Remember how excited I was for the opening of the French Market at the Ogilvy / Northwestern train station last year?

Well, it really hurts me to say this because I really wanted to be a big supporter, but I've been there 3 times now and I have to say that I am very disappointed.

Not in the selection of vendors - they have a wonderful variety of high quality purveyors of produce, flowers, pastries, cheese, deli and prepared foods. What they don't have is an environment that makes anyone but the harried commuter with no other option want to shop there.As you can see from these photos, although clean and well lit, the space is cold and sterile. I understand the difficulty of making a warehouse space feel intimate, but maybe the use of overhead florescent lighting that you find in hospital corridors wasn't the best idea.
Even the eating area looks and feels like a bus station.

Compare our market to the one in New York at Grand Central Terminal - the lighting makes a huge difference.

And a little bit of wood goes a long way - note how the wooden shelving at the back of most vendor booths offsets the cold box feel of the standard display cases?

Or take LA's Grand Central Market - yes, part of the ceiling is skylight but it's also a huge warehouse space that they have somehow managed to make inviting.This market has been here since 1917, yet still meets all modern food handling and storage code requirements without turning into a sterile environment.

This is the only vendor space in the entire Chicago market that doesn't make me feel like I'm in a meat locker.Although I'm sure that this is an upgrade implemented by Pastoral, it's a shame that the developers couldn't figure out how to provide more than bare bones space throughout the market.

I truly wish the French Market well and hope that the captive commuter crowd is enough to keep it going. I'll even continue to walk through and pick up the occasional needed item when I'm in the area. But I probably won't be making any special trips.
Si triste.