This article was scraped from Rochester Subway. This is a blog about Rochester history and urbanism has not been published since 2017. The current owners are now publishing link spam which made me want to preserve this history.. The original article was published March 04, 2009 and can be found here.
Okay, I haven't put the time or effort into crafting my own vision for the old Midtown Tower, so Im not going to be overly critical here. But Im going to show you two concepts for Midtown that were sent to the city this week for review (and 1 wildcard concept). The first drawing (shown on the left) is from local developers Patrick Dutton and Shane Bartholf. It includes 158 for-sale condominiums with large window openings, common or public use of the former restaurant space on the 14th floor, and mixed-use office and retail on the first three floors. As you can see they've also added some shiny (albeit blurry) people to their drawing, as well as a lovely solar-flare effect to make the building look extra shiny...
The second drawing, from New York-based Harmony Group, is a similar layout but theyve added a gigantic sign that says MIDTOWN PLAZA on the front of the building--OH and theyve opted to put a gray sky in the background. Ooh, Harmony, I don't think gray is a good color for Rochester. Not much else going on here so lets move on to concept #3.
This third concept was done by my 4-year-old daughter. I admit I'm a bit partial here, but this proposal has its merits. Firstly, its completely original. She didnt box herself into the 1960s modernist framework of the old structure. I'm all for preserving the old, but that style of architecture died for a reason--lets bury it. Also, hers looks way more pedestrian-friendly. True, the other two drawings show more people on the sidewalks, but my daughters people are much bigger, allowing them to step over, or around the building if necessary. She wont even need sidewalks in her plan. Finally, and most convincingly, her idea clearly comes from the heart. These other two drawings seem to represent the quickest, cheapest path to profit for the developer. Gut the building, slap on a new pre-fab exterior, and bam! Same old same old.
The city plans to make a decision (or a decision to not decide) by the end of April 2009. Sadly, my daughters drawing is not in the running.
