Underwhelmed by the available options and, he says, determined to give Rochester a real choice, Fraser Smillie sat down at his computer to brainstorm a new concept for Parcel 5 at Midtown in downtown Rochester (see proposal below).
What he and Bud DeWolff, owner of DeWolff Partnership Architects, came up with is a statement building: a minimum 14-story glass-and-steel structure with a hotel, offices, restaurant, 3,000-seat performing arts center, housing, and other amenities.
An optics museum to showcase Rochester’s rich imaging history as well as its future in photonics is another possibility, says Smillie, who’s retired from Xerox, where he did marketing.
“Is it a final plan? No,” he says. “It’s just a plan to say that there are other options available. I think what we have done is sort of stir the pot a little bit by saying, ‘Here’s another chance to do something right.’”
Smillie puts the price tag at about $150 million and says that he potentially has a group of interested investors. But investors are reluctant to commit unless the City of Rochester shows it is taking the proposal seriously, he says.
That may be a sticking point; the deadline to submit proposals is long past. But in an unusual but not unprecedented move, City Council members say that they will interview the developers behind each Parcel 5 proposal. Council member Carolee Conklin said in today’s Democrat and Chronicle that she’s willing to include the Smillie-DeWolff proposal in that process.
The traditional route is for the mayor to choose a proposal and then send the recommendation to City Council for approval.
The other proposals are: a 14-story mixed-use tower; performing arts center; and green space for concerts and other public uses.
Smillie says those proposals are really not “choices.” The city will undoubtedly choose the mixed-use proposal, put forth by Gallina Development, he says. Now the city will have a real choice, he says.
“Here we have an opportunity do something really neat, and Bud came up with a great-looking building,” Smillie says.
2016 10-24 City Centre Complex by Scott Fien on Scribd
This article appears in Oct 26 – Nov 1, 2016.
(Looking to see if this was left over from the News’ April Fools edition….)
Nobody is saying anything (is this a joke? I don’t get it), so I feel the need to point out that this is awful. Modern architecture? A la 1970. The building looks like it’s from a comic book (back when they were nerdy, and before nerdy was cool), and the power point just confirms its absurdity. It starts off by not answering any of its own questions. Then it throws in a spelling error, and just panders to the mayor for the rest of it.
History Lesson: The Eiffel tower was built for the French Revolution’s 100th Anniversary. It was a temporary structure that was supposed to be taken down after 20 years. It wasn’t taken down due to its scientific research benefits then later for its military advantages. Then it became a national icon.
To bemoan building a “fix “for a specific current need, and then almost immediately laud the benefits of and the inspiration of another world famous “fix”-for-a-specific-current-need is preposterous… Or maybe its iron-y (a little architecture humor for you).
The problem is that so much has already been done, everything appears to be cliche. How about a huge tetrahedron covered in solar panels? Understand what I mean?
This is the best reason yet to leave parcel 5 as open space.
Who cares what the building looks like? Taxpayers paid plenty to tear down Midtown Plaza. That’s it. We’re done paying and we’re ready to let anyone build anything they want on parcel 5 with the only stipulation that the City of Rochester benefits monetarily.
Who are we to judge how this building looks? We’re not your customers. Send over some CEO’s with plans of moving employees downtown; then you’d be talking.
If you need another reason to be embarrassed about this “city” (notice the quotes), here you have it. I would refer to this as putting a “bow on a pig”, but this building is an insult to bows and this city is an insult to pigs.