{"id":7938,"date":"2014-03-09T22:46:52","date_gmt":"2014-03-10T02:46:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/?p=7938"},"modified":"2014-03-09T22:46:52","modified_gmt":"2014-03-10T02:46:52","slug":"anonymous-photos-inside-midtown-tower-rochester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/2014\/03\/anonymous-photos-inside-midtown-tower-rochester\/","title":{"rendered":"Anonymous Photos: Inside Midtown Tower"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Let's<\/a>
\nThe latest Midtown renderings \"external<\/a> from Buckingham Properties are a promising sign of things to come. Still, it’s difficult to ignore this 18-story skeleton which has been looming over Rochester’s streets since 2011. When most people look up at this hulking mass of steel and concrete they see a blemish on the Rochester skyline. But for one urban explorer, this is a photo op.<\/p>\n

The same anonymous photographer who took us inside Terrence Tower<\/a> and the Sykes Datatronics<\/a> building, climbed to the tippy top of midtown last week. He submitted this collection of photos and the following narrative…<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\n“I’ve always been fascinated by redevelopment projects \u2013 the history surrounding them and what the future may hold. \u00a0The Midtown Plaza site is a place that’s had me captivated from day one. With all the talk about what might happen with this site, last week I finally decided to stop in and see the space before full renovation work starts.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nAs I walked around the building, from the outside I could see much of what’s left.\u00a0Steel pillars pepper the bottom few floors with some stairwells stretching upward. \u00a0It was a quiet night. A few walkers were out in the center city and a police car sat idle in a nearby lot. An open gate offered little in the way of security.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nOnce I was in and started my climb to the top, I was struck by the open expanse of the interior. It’s misleading from the outside, but those first few floors open up a lot. \u00a0Maybe it was the large holes in the floor, but this could be a fantastic space once developed.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nThe main body of the building was similar, largely gutted and empty. \u00a0A few fixtures remain. Long rows of empty window frames stand watch, looking out over the heart of the city.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nThe stairwells were still intact, with some wood handrails to keep workers safe. \u00a0Some snow had blown in and was collecting in the crevices of the stairs. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nI took the stairs all the way to the 15th floor or so, where the windows stop and the open skeleton begins. Those top floors were filled with girders and holes in the floor, likely from elevators. A steady strong wind instantly hit me. \u00a0I pressed upward to the 18th floor; currently the roof. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nEverything was removed except the top of the stairwell and a few old pillars. \u00a0The surface was covered up and protected well, allowing me to scoot over to the edges of the building pretty easily. <\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nThe view from the roof was absolutely amazing. \u00a0The “wheel & spoke” layout of Rochester’s streets is evident from here \u2013 brightly lit\u00a0arterial roads spidering out from beneath me make it feel like I’m standing on top of the world.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nA snow sqall heading in from the lake could be seen in the distance. It was getting late anyway, and with the bitter cold wind picking up, I began my descent. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nAbout halfway back down, a garbage truck came rumbling into the Xerox garage across the street and terrified me. \u00a0Unsure of when construction workers would arrive for the next day, I was frozen thinking that I had stayed too long and would soon hit the morning rush.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nI moved quickly down the last few floors before stopping to try to capture this photo. \u00a0I couldn’t get a good enough shot holding it, so reluctantly I set up and used the tripod I brought. \u00a0As soon as I snapped it I packed up and headed out.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nI was scooting down the final set of stairs above the ground when a pick up truck pulled up. I froze again. I could hear people get out and start talking, right where I needed to go. \u00a0I moved back up one floor and sat there for a while, waiting, and hoping that they weren’t the first wave of workers arriving for the day.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
\nWithin five minutes silence fell again, and I went back down to find the truck gone, but now a new light on in the other stairwell. \u00a0It was time for me to sneak by and back to my car with some great photographs \u2013 views that hopefully many people will get to experience once the tower is redeveloped.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The latest Midtown renderings from Buckingham Properties are a promising sign of things to come. Still, it’s difficult to ignore this 18-story skeleton which has been looming over Rochester’s streets since 2011. When most people look up at this hulking mass of steel and concrete they see a blemish on the Rochester skyline. But for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1573,1293,788,79,2294],"tags":[1685,1684,1623,1461,2017,70,118,2510,116,117,225,224,53,151,857,309,1963,809],"class_list":["post-7938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rochester-art-culture","category-reader-submitted-stories","category-old-photos-of-rochester-ny","category-urban_development","category-urban-exploration-2","tag-abandoned","tag-abandoned-places","tag-aerial-photography","tag-buckingham-properties","tag-construction","tag-downtown","tag-downtown-rochester","tag-midtown","tag-midtown-plaza","tag-midtown-tower","tag-photo","tag-photography","tag-rochester","tag-rochester-ny","tag-rochester-photos","tag-skyscraper","tag-urban-development","tag-urban-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7938"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7973,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7938\/revisions\/7973"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rochestersubway.com\/topics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}