High Falls Visitor Center Will Close, June 30

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 April 07, 2013 and can be found here.

   Sally Wood Winslow has operated the     High Falls Visitor Center

, gift shop, and art gallery for 20 years. During that time she has personally greeted every single visitor with a boisterous "HELLO THERE! Welcome to the Visitor Center at High Falls!!" And, she has become a very good friend of mine, so this one hurts me personally. Today Sally announced the visitor center and gallery will be closing on June 30...

   Sally (that's her on the left) says she was officially notified by the City last week of the closing. While no reasons were given, she says it's almost certainly budget related. "It's true this gallery has made a real contribution to quality of life in our community for 20 years, but it is probably not #1 on the priority list of city services."

She's wasting no time, however, planning the gallery's final art show. The exhibit will be called simply, "Color." Artist are invited to submit up to three works, and Sally promises that at least one will be displayed. Sally hand selects all the work displayed in the gallery. She says, "If you submit three, it will give us the best chance to create a beautiful and cohesive collection." Artists can     download an entry form here    .

Always looking to have a little bit of fun, Sally is asking for your ideas for something special to do at the last reception. "Artist Ken Nichols has volunteered to shave my head, and I'm actually considering it," she jokes.

So what's ahead for Sally? All she can say for now, is "fun and adventure." Well, where ever the winds take you Sally, I'm sure you'll fulfill that promise. But for my own selfishness, I hope you find fun and adventure close to home! Cause we'll miss you if you go too far!

On a related, but more positive note...

Schematics have been completed for a new sunken garden along Browns Race. The non-profit group, Friends of the GardenAerial, is working hard to pull together funds with many small, private contributions using an online tool called Ioby. But I'm told the campaign will close at the end of April and it's well shy of the $10,000 goal. So if you haven't contributed yet, please     consider making a small donation here

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If you do contribute to this project, I will personally thank you by giving you a shout-out on RochesterSubway.com. Let me start by thanking those who have already contributed to raising over $2,000 of the $10,000 needed...

Thank you to... R. Manard, D. Olney, C. Stevens, M. Porter, R. Charboneau, L. Fedele, E. Spaull, K. Greene, S. Dinan, A. Kress, L. Moroney, W. Larsen, K. Wessendorf, P. Braus, T. Johnston, J. Rowe, D. Casper, M. Boutet, N. Nocon, L. Frey, T. Clement, K. Gardner, E. Haselbauer, J. Licitra, G. Kellogg, M. Delaney, W. Colley, B. Woelk, P. Giordano, P. Mcgrath, L. Stess, E. Frisch, D. Howell, M. Battle, D. Pearl, L. Seth, M. Tilton, Z. Declerck, M. Lewis, D. Dolce, M. Governale, R. Deguzman, and K. Cleary.

The nearly 300 foot long raceway will become a tribute to Rochester's history as The Flour City. The design features five distinct sections, each representing a different aspect of the Genesee River Gorge. These renderings were provided courtesy of the project designers,     Landgarden Landscape Architects

...

The section closest to the Pont de Rennes Bridge and Granite Mills Park is appropriately named "The Gorge." It will allow visitors to step down inside and explore the garden up close, while giant stacked millstones will provide lots of places for people to sit and enjoy the sites and sounds.

   Fiber optic lights poke their way up through the stones and water, and native plantings soften the edge of the buildings in "The Lower Falls."

   Native trees and rain gardens line the overlook into "The Middle Race."

   "The Promontory" provides a space for cafe tables and another space to enjoy the views.

   In geography, a promontory is "a prominent mass of land that overlooks lower-lying land or a body of water."

   Water races over large, stair-stepped stones in this section called "Millstone Falls."

   And, at the southern end of the garden, water flows down the sides of a stone obelisk, recreating "The Falls."

   The project designers are incorporating sustainable features including native plantings, rain gardens, and recycled water. They are also exploring the possibility of using wind power.

So, on the one hand the long loved High Falls Visitor Center is closing. But, with the Rochester community pulling together to transform Browns Race into a completely unique public space, the new Sunken Garden could go a long way towards attracting new tenants and new visitors to this beautiful and historic neighborhood.

You can help make this happen by making     a donation

today. No amount is too small. And please share the link with your friends.    * * *

Thanks again to      Landgarden Landscape Architects     for the project renderings!