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By Mike Governale

On my almost daily walk along State and Main streets I’ve often noticed this boom lift blocking the sidewalks around the Powers Building . I’ve never given it much thought. I just figured Daniel Powers liked his windows really clean.

Then, last week while at the Fringe, my RocSubway teammate Joanne Brokaw got introduced to Scott Grove. As it turns out, Scott is that guy hanging high up over Rochester’s sidewalks—and he’s not cleaning windows…

In the video above, Scott explains what he’s doing to the Powers Building, and takes us up in his lift for a closer look.

A little background… Over his 37 year career as an artist Scott Grove has played in many sandboxes. His work ranges from photography, to painting, to sculpting with wood, metal, glass (and what ever else he could get his hands on), carving with chainsaws, and even performance art (as a professional clown).

You may have seen his sculptures and furniture around town – maybe at the University of Rochester, the Village Gate, public market, or on the street in the Neighborhood Of The Arts.

His use of veneering and other unorthodox techniques add a dimension to his furniture; the type of which you might believe could only be crafted by mother nature over millions of years. In fact he’s become a nationally recognized innovator in this area, inventing a method of stretching and forming veneer called compound veneering, and authoring a couple of books on the subject.

When Scott isn’t working on his own creations, look up and you just might find him working on any of Rochester’s architectural treasures.

As he explains in the video Scott fell into the field of architectural restoration 30 years ago when a local architect asked him to reproduce some decorative cornice work for the Piano Works Mall in East Rochester. Since then he’s worked on many of Rochester’s most iconic buildings including the H.H. Warner Building , Eastman Theater , Jonathan Child’s House , and the old old Bausch & Lomb headquarters .

Today, you can catch Scott doing some preventative maintenance to the highly ornate, and also quite beautiful, Powers Building. He and his partner Mark are checking for signs of corrosion — replacing loose pieces and parts so none of that beautiful iron work falls on an unsuspecting pedestrian.

There aren’t many craftsman like Scott Grove around anymore. So if you happen to see him up there, give him a wave and a “thank you” for keeping our historic buildings looking so great. Oh, and thanks also, Scott, for letting us ride around in your cherry picker.

You can see more photos and read more about Scott Grove on Joanne Brokaw’s blog here .

Tags: architecture, artist, Bausch & Lomb Headquarters, Daniel Powers, downtown Rochester, Eastman Theater, H.H. Warner Building, historic preservation, Jonathan Child House, Neighborhood of the Arts, Piano Works Mall, Powers Building, Rochester, Rochester NY, Rochester Public Market, Scott Grove, sculpture, State Street, University of Rochester

This entry was posted on Monday, September 28th, 2015 at 8:20 pm and is filed under Architecture, Art + Culture, Interviews, Rochester History, Rochester News, Urban Exploration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.