I stopped by Iola on Sunday to check on what’s left, and I snapped these pics. In front of the main building there was once a circle with concrete benches and lamp posts. To be perfectly honest I coveted the abandoned lamp posts and thought of ways I could possibly “reclaim” them, but my conscience always prevented me from doing so. Well, I should have because the picture above shows the careful attention the deconstruction crew is taking to features that could be re-used. That’s the base and the flattened steel post is above it. I think my reclamation would have been better than this treatment. Damn conscience.
New renderings were released this week of the proposed development called CityGate. Wow, look at all the fake pedestrians. Very exciting! Here’s my full analysis…
RocSubway fans, This past Sunday morning (6/2/13), I went with a friend of mine to check out the Iola Campus site . I have lived in Rochester all my life and I have always been intrigued by those buildings (my aunt actually used to live in the apartments across the street). About 6 months ago, I started a little urban exploring group with some friends and coworkers; Iola was one of the first places of interest. With the CityGate project fast approaching, I knew I had to take the risk and visit Iola while I still could. Rather than taking a big group, just two of us went since we were not sure what the security situation would be like. The whole campus was great. A lot of the buildings had pretty easy access points, but there were a couple we could not get in to, due to time constraints (and proximity to the main road!). I hope that you all enjoy the shots! – Sarah Barnes
Welcoming Costco and RGRTA to CityGate is great. Ignoring walkability and losing all historic buildings isn’t. Our community needs walkable places. We need development that calms traffic and makes walking easy and safe. Moreover, our community needs to preserve its historic fabric. We need development that repurposes old buildings for new uses…
No, seriously – give CityGate to ME, because I want to redesign it. The current plan is not worthy of the name. I may be the only person in western NY who didn’t crap themselves when they learned Costco was coming to town. I mean, Costco? Really? We need another one of these discount warehouses? Ok fine, I’ll let you have your Costco. No complaints from me. On one condition: Re-do this idiotic site plan! Look at this…
The Landmark Society is partnering with the Park-Meigs Neighborhood Association to hold a public forum on the evening of Tuesday, May 21 at 597 East Avenue . Up for discussion: the timely and controversial topic of new development in preservation districts. This is a community conversation you will NOT want to miss.
A panel of speakers, representing developers, homeowners, business owners, urban planners, and The Landmark Society, will offer their perspective, followed by an open question and answer session. Speakers include Wayne Goodman, Executive Director of The Landmark Society; Glenn Kellogg, Urban Advisors; Joe Hanna, Hanna Properties; Steve Vogt, Rochester Young Professionals. RocSubway contributor, Matthew Denker will also weigh in. Can new development benefit preservation districts? How can the new co-exist with the old? What is “good” development? These are some of the questions this forum will attempt to address.
As some of you may or may not know, the city has finally released a Request for Proposals (RFP) on 88 Elm Street . Up front, here’s a link to the RFP , in case you run a development company, or if you’re Larry Glazer and you’re looking for another project to work on.
In any event, here’s some background on 88 Elm St. Somehow, despite being built sometime in the 60s, no one is exactly sure when 88 Elm St. was constructed, or where, exactly, it came from. You’d think that’d be impossible in this day and age, but it’s not. In 1998, the city decided it had enough of the owners of the property not paying their taxes and they took it. All well and good, except now it’s been empty for 15 years. It’s emptier than you might think. The city spent more than a million dollars on an asbestos abatement and a new roof. The building has no electrical system, no sprinkler system, no HVAC, no plumbing. It is a completely bare 13 story tower. That’s a bit of a rarity, and it could be yours for only $360,000. Apparently that’s the market rate for the 13-story husk of a building…
Two important cases will go before the Zoning Board this Thursday: the ongoing saga of one historic church on Main Street, and design concerns regarding the future College Town. Salvation for the church, as well as the promise of a pedestrian-friendly College Town, may hang in the balance.
First, if you’ve been following the story of the little white church at 660 W. Main Street, owner Marvin Maye will make one more appeal to challenge the building’s status as a Designated Building of Historic Value. If he succeeds, he could have a clear path forward to demolish the 140-something-year-old church.* And in its place would go a Dollar General store…
One of the best places to put additional density is near public parks. Why you ask? Well, that’s an excellent question. Not only do parks double as excellent backyards that homeowners don’t need to mow, but they provide excellent views (that will never go away), and density around parks makes the parks themselves more attractive to passers-by.
All of this translates to adding housing around pre-existing parks. This should be a priority for the city. While I am hoping to tackle a master plan for Brown Square Park (by Frederick Law Olmsted, no less!), let’s start out with something a little smaller…
Well, dear readers, I must admit that this is not exactly what I had planned when I left you the last time. That said, please bear with me while we look at something a little bit different.
John Baker, Steve Gullace, Chris Gullace have proposed to construct a new gym and a 48 unit apartment building at 759 Park Ave . The gym would be for the Talmudic Institute next door, while the apartments would be for rent. This has, not surprisingly, drawn a raft of criticism from the residents of the Park Ave neighborhood…
Welcome back! Last week we looked at a block that almost had it all. This week, let’s see what we can do on a much larger scale with a block that needs a little more work. A roughly 600’x600’ square mega block at the southern entrance to downtown. There are a few good things going on here; Geva Theater , Capron Lofts , Plan Architects . And, a few not so good; a sweeping highway off-ramp, a GIANT parking lot across the street from TWO garages, and random weedy surface lots…
Welcome to the first post in what will be an ongoing series called Filling In. One of the key elements of any great city is a tightly knit urban fabric. Whether you’re in New York City, San Francisco, or our own beloved Rochester, building an appealing city scape at a human, walkable scale promotes health, wealth, and wisdom. We’ve also learned that parks next to parks next to barren windswept plazas don’t put butts in seats, as they say. With that in mind, Filling In aims to explore vacant or underutilized pieces of Rochester in an effort to rebuild or strengthen our built environment. The aerial photo above was taken in 1929, when downtown was dense and energetic. And here is a reminder of what we’re up against…
The former Midtown Plaza site contained eight office buildings, an indoor shopping mall, Greyhound/Trailways bus station, and three levels of under-ground parking. Today, this nearly nine-acre, City-owned super-block is sloooowly being transformed…
The I-Square project which was widely celebrated when it was announced last year has gotten tangled up in “negotiations” over local tax deals. Mike & Wendy Nolan want to invest $13 million to build a 7-building project including a new street, sidewalks and outdoor stage / “town square” area. They say they need a 25 PILOT agreement in order to be able to afford to build and maintain the project they’ve proposed. The Town of Irondequoit have offered a 10 year PILOT. Both sides seem to have dug in their heals. Today the Nolan’s posted a video on YouTube to explain (in detail) their 25 Year PILOT proposal “so that any questions can be answered and any misconceptions cleared up.” Watch the video…
I dropped by the Irondequoit Planning Board meeting Monday night because there were two very interesting matters on the agenda. One of those was Irondequoit Square (or I-Square) which RocSubway broke news of here last August. The other involved an all-but-forgotten friend, Chase-Pitkin…
Irondequoit is a pretty cool little town; surrounded by water on three sides and the City of Rochester to its south. Home of the HOG (House of Guitars), Sea Breeze Amusement, and Parkside Diner & Whispering Pines (officially the oldest miniature golf course in the USA). Of course there are also a few clouds that hang over this small-ish town of 52,000 soles – namely Medley Center and a pretty tired looking retail corridor in East Ridge Road. But put all that aside for a moment. Here comes a smaller project that could have a much bigger impact per square foot… Irondequoit Square. Click the image below for a larger view of the plan…
Jacky Grimshaw, Vice President of Policy, Transportation, and Community Development at the Center for Neighborhood Technology in Chicago will be in Rochester this Wednesday, May 13, to discuss neighborhood revitalization and the importance of transit-oriented development. RocSubway followers do not want to miss this event. It’s also the final lecture in this series entitled Reshaping Rochester hosted by the Rochester Regional Community Design Center .
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After the Erie Canal was rerouted south of downtown Rochester, the Rochester
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![The abandoned Iola Tuberculosis Sanatorium. [PHOTO: Matt Rieck]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/iola-tuberculosis-sanatorium-matt-rieck-01.jpg)
![The abandoned Iola Tuberculosis Sanatorium. [PHOTO: Sarah Barnes]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/iola-tuberculosis-sanatorium-001.jpg)
![The abandoned Iola Tuberculosis Sanatorium, Nurses' Building. [PHOTO: Mike Bouwmeester]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/rochester-iola-sanatorium-nurses-building.jpg)
![Plan view of proposed CityGate project. [IMAGE: AJ Costello & Son]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/city-gate-site-plan-01.jpg)
![88 Elm Street. 13 floors of empty waiting for you to do something with it. [PHOTO: City of Rochester]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/filling-in-88-elm-01.jpg)
![John Baker, Steve Gullace, Chris Gullace have proposed to construct a new gym and a 48 unit apartment building here at 759 Park Ave. [IMAGE: Bing Maps]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/filling-in-park-avenue-02.jpg)
![Our second installment of 'Filling In' looks at developing the parking lots between Capron Lofts and Geva Theater. [IMAGE: Google Streetview]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/filling-in-capron-street-01.jpg)
![Aerial view of the Main Street bridge. 1929. [IMAGE: Rochester Municipal Archives]](https://www.rochestersubway.com/images/photos/aerial-main-street-bridge-rochester-1929.jpg)
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