![With a little help from Photoshop, I've taken a shot at illustrating how the storefront at 72 Conkey Avenue could look if the City gave local resident Jim Fraser a chance to apply his skills and vision to the property. [Illustration: Mike Governale]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/72-conkey-avenue-after-cropped.jpg)
As an artist, I think I maybe I see things in the world around me that other people can’t or just don’t want to. I find myself squinting all the time; trying to imagine what could be. I can’t look at a paper cup without imagining what it might become if Jonathan Ive
had his way with it. I know there are a lot of people who probably see 72 Conkey Avenue as nothing more than an eyesore; and then there are people like me who see something different. And that boys and girls, is why there’s Photoshop…
![With a little help from Photoshop, I've taken a shot at illustrating how the storefront at 72 Conkey Avenue could look if the City gave local resident Jim Fraser a chance to apply his skills and vision to the property. [Illustration: Mike Governale]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/72-conkey-avenue-after.jpg)
Reading Jim Fraser’s proposal to restore this late 1800’s diamond in the rough, I took HIS words and HIS vision and came up with the drawing above (click for a larger view).
A bike shop, coffee shop, laundromat… even a community room are all possibilities for the ground floor. Three residential units would occupy the upper and rear portions of the building. The windows and original woodwork would be restored. A new security system would be installed and newer windows where appropriate. New roof, new entryway, fresh paint, and period lighting fixtures—check. And last but not least, some flower boxes and plantings to soften the edges around the new brick patio. Below is the same shot of this building today…
![This is what the 1879 Victorian storefront looks today. [PHOTO: Jim Fraser]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/72-conkey-avenue-before.jpg)
The City’s Director of Business & Housing Development, Bret Garwood, was at RIT this past Thursday as a guest speaker in Bill Johnson’s Urban Policy & Planning class. One of the students in that class—who read about 72 Conkey on this site—asked Mr. Garwood for his thoughts on the effort to save this building from demolition. Garwood said the biggest issue he is trying to weigh with this property has to do with the fact it is a storefront—and he does not believe a storefront will have a positive presence in the neighborhood.
Now, I’m just an artist; but I think these before and after photos go along way in answering Mr. Garwood’s concerns. Not a good fit for this community? Says who??
UPDATE (11/04): Part V, 72 Conkey: The Tide May Be Turning…
Tags: Bill Johnson, Bret Garwood, City of Rochester, Clifford Avenue, Conkey Avenue, Evergreen Street, Genesee Land Trust, Ibero, Jim Fraser, Jo Dickinson, photo, Photoshop, Project Hope, Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), Rochester NY, urban renewal, urban revitalization
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Monique Bridenbaugh 
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A storefront will not have a positive presence in the neighborhood? This is what we are dealing with…ugh