Rethinking demolition - Renaissance Square

The following letter was sent to the editor of the Democrat and Chronicle at the end of January.

Dear Editor,

The Landmark Society congratulates the County's commitment to downtown Rochester. Yet, along with other Renaissance Square programmatic concerns, we remain troubled about plans to demolish the buildings along Main Street east of the Granite Building.

The buildings at Clinton and Main Street are not individually noteworthy, yet when grouped, they form a continuous streetwall that defines traditional downtown character. Streets lined by buildings are lively, pedestrian-friendly, and urban in the best sense. The existing city zoning code reflects robust urban planning principles: zoning regulations for Main Street call for strong, fixed edges at the front lot line to "promote spatial definition along the streetscape." This project seems to abandon these important principles.

We strongly encourage project planners to rethink plans for "green space" in this location and look instead for alternatives that foster sound urban planning and vitality. We recommend the current buildings at the corner of Main and Clinton remain. The City and County should encourage developers to consider their adaptive reuse or, if demolition must occur, delay until more appropriate plans are in place.

Sincerely,

Joanne Arany
Executive Director

A 3-year-old's take on Midtown

Now that Laura’s raised the fascinating topic of Midtown (see below), I can’t help sharing my own son’s observations when he heard last winter that the complex could be demolished. He was almost four at the time, and, being subjected to car rides with me on a daily basis, he is pretty adept at noticing and commenting on his surroundings. But his indignant reaction to the idea that Midtown could be demolished took my breath away, because he had never heard me mention this particular project and had no idea what I thought about it. Fortunately I had a pencil and paper right on hand, so almost as soon as he started his commentary I started writing:

"It's a very nice building, because it has lots of fancy lights and everything. Do they have a skyway? They shouldn't tear it down because people need to get in the skyway... That's not very nice to do, because people might want to keep going there. Will they move the train to a different one? It's very hard to tear buildings down, so they can't just tear buildings down. They can't."

Fortunately, he didn’t ask what would happen to Santa…

By the way, if you're interested in following Midtown news, check out the City of Rochester's new website devoted to the project.

Posted by Katie Eggers Comeau, Advocacy Coordinator, with the assistance of Benjamin, now age 4