Landmark Society of Western New York's Inside Downtown Tour

Ok, I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for a house or garden tour!  To me, it’s an opportunity not just to support a good cause (in this case, the Landmark Society), but also to see a different part of town, and to satisfy a curiosity of where other people live and how they decorate. 

Rooftop view of Frontier Field from Buckingham Commons

My husband and I visited 6 of the 8 buildings on the October tour on ‘the other side of the river’ – a part of downtown we normally would never have occasion to venture to.  There seemed to be lots of foot traffic on the tour on Sunday afternoon, mostly by suburbanites like us.  Some of the properties were actually people’s homes (I can’t imagine opening my house to hundreds of complete strangers walking through and gawking), while others were vacant or staged, for rental or purchase.  The residences that were available seemed expensive for their remote location – none was in walking distance of a grocery or restaurants, but all were in close proximity to the Open Door Mission. It was difficult, walking from building to building, to ignore the economic and cultural divide of Rochester.  I remember a similar feeling looking at apartments in the West 40s and Tribeca in Manhattan back in the early 1980s, and not being pioneer enough to take that risk, so I have to admire the pluck of the people willing to bet on the renaissance of downtown Rochester.

Many of the buildings are converted manufacturing and commercial spaces, so the apartments are loft-style, with wonderfully high ceilings and lots of light from windows that provide unusual views (even the ‘best view,’ of Frontier Field, includes highways and railroad tracks, unfortunately).  We started at the Daily Record Building, where we admired the Rothschilds’ 4600-square-foot muli-level penthouse loft, but agreed that it would be difficult to live there, with all the steps up and down between the different open space levels.

The most interesting building, outside and in, was the Academy Building, which was constructed on the site of the first school building in Rochester, and was originally home to a school and administrative offices.  I loved all of the circular staircases in the apartments (again, not age-in-place friendly!), and I finally found my ideal layout – an apartment with an internal bedroom with no windows, separated from the living area by sliding doors!

Quietest bedroom in Rochester!

An extra bonus of the house tour was the chance to see Rochester’s 175^th Special Photo Exhibition – Downtown:  The Way It Was.  The photographs, hung at street level on the sides of various buildings, reminded the passerby of what the city was like in its heyday.  We can only hope that between the city planners and intrepid individuals and businesses moving back downtown, that the city of Rochester can once again be a place to be.

Restored glass tiles by elevators at 44 Exchange Blvd.

From Executive Director Wayne Goodman's welcome message to tour-goers:  "This tour embodies preservation.  You will see firsthand how adaptive use can transform buildings, neighborhoods and entire communities.  Once-vacant buildings are now dynamic resources that house small businesses and homes, create jobs, contribute to our local tax base and solidify investment in a given area....Creative use, adaptation, is essential to not only save our heritage, but to also encourage further investment in our community."








For more information on the Landmark Society:  www.landmarksociety.org

For more information on the photo exhibition:  http://bigpicturerochester.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=56&Itemid=1