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 28, 2014 and can be found here.
![A building in Portland, Oregon. [IMAGE: Google Streetview]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/79-north-clinton-01.jpg?ref=senseofplace.dev)
The following is a guest post submitted by Matthew Denker .
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Fellow Rochesterians, lend me your ears. I recently visited the reasonably pleasant city of Portland, OR. While I was there, I couldn't help but notice a rather cleverly decorated, midcentury modern building. It was this one, actually...
![Here's a similar building on North Clinton Avenue. [IMAGE: Google Streetview]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/79-north-clinton-02.jpg?ref=senseofplace.dev)
Someone once said that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery (note to self: look up who said that). With that in mind, I knew I had to imitate this building. Conveniently, Rochester already has the exact building I've coveted to do just this sort of thing with. Drumroll please! 79 North Clinton
Call me crazy, but I've loved this building for some time. I wanted to buy it when it was on the market a few years back, but the price was a little high, and I was a little poor. Life. Word on the street is that the building has actually been donated to Catholic Family Center. I don't know if this is true, but this building is one of those black holes in the city's GIS application. It crashes every time I try to click on it for information.
Moving on, I've long considered the conversion of this building to apartments. I think it would easily support three apartments per floor. Likely a studio, a 1BR, and a 2BR. The top floor would have two larger, 2BR apartments. The roof would be converted into outdoor space for all of the building tenants. Every apartment would be appointed in a matching midcentury modern style (think anything on this page
) but with fully modern amenities, including stainless steel kitchens, in-unit laundry, and radiant flooring.
I think the base would do well to have retail too, and either a mod coffee shop or sandwich place would be spectacular. In fact, I think this would be a great spot for a revived Automat style "restaurant." This would be something unique, and would make for a great spot to stop on the way to waiting for a bus at the new transportation center.
Oh right, what would it all look like!? Well, please excuse me shoddy photoshopping, but, voila!
![79 North Clinton Ave all spruced up. [IMAGE: Matthew Denker]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/79-north-clinton-03.jpg?ref=senseofplace.dev)
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About Matthew Denker:
Matthew Denker is a Project Director by day and a fantasy real estate tycoon by night. He has a deep interest in Rochester, NY, as well as the subjects of new urbanism, walkability, mass transit, and land use. Going forward he hopes to combine all of those things to make Rochester a city competitive not only with other small, successful cities, such as Portland and Minneapolis, but even better by leveraging its easy access to the world-class cities of Toronto and New York.
