Photo from Dexter Press, Incorporated / Stephen Heaslip
Showing posts with label Rochester's Midtown Plaza (1962). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rochester's Midtown Plaza (1962). Show all posts
Rochester's Midtown Plaza
The Flower City's revolutionary retail center, which was the first suburban mall in a center city setting. MIDTOWN PLAZA consisted of 2 levels; the Mall Level (or ground floor) and Terrace Level. Upon its official dedication in April 1962, the PLAZA was heralded as "The nation’s most spectacular center-city revival project."
Photo from Dexter Press, Incorporated / Stephen Heaslip
Photo from Dexter Press, Incorporated / Stephen Heaslip
A 1962 newspaper ad entices visitors to Rochester's gleaming new MIDTOWN PLAZA. Terms such as "exclusive," "unique in the whole wide world" and "awesome splendor" may seem a bit over the top in this super-jaded world of today. However, back in the mid-century years, this is how new things were often promoted.
Advert from the Midtown Holdings Company
The Clock of Nations, which was the centerpiece of a 2-level Public Plaza. On the hour and half hour, it gave musical puppet shows representing twelve different nations. The clock, designed by California's Dale Clark, stood 28 feet high.
Photo from Dexter Press, Incorporated
The Sidewalk Cafe at MIDTOWN PLAZA was a forerunner of the shopping mall food courts that would proliferate in the 1980s and '90s.
Photo from Marks & Fuller Company
Midtown Tower was a component of the MIDTOWN PLAZA development. The International-style building encompassed 18 floors and included a seventy-room hotel, 10 floors of office suites, the Top of the Plaza restaurant & nightclub and a Trailways bus terminal.
Photo from Dexter Press, Incorporated
MIDTOWN PLAZA TENANTS 1962:
ON THE MALL
McCURDY'S (with Beauty Salon, Garden Room restaurant, Coffee Break snack bar and Community Center) / B. FORMAN (with Beauty Salon) / American Airlines ticket office / Andrew J. Mickles Agency Insurance & Real Estate / Baker's Qualicraft Shoes / Casual Corner ladies' wear / Christian Science Reading Room / Clark's Shoes / Edison Brothers Shoes / Fanny Farmer Candies / Funfair Recreation Center / Grinnell-Kalb-Fleish Travel Agency / Hershberg's Jewelers / Lane Bryant ladies' wear / Likly's Luggage & Gifts / Lincoln Rochester Trust Company / Medwin's Liquor Store / Melcrest Shoes / National Key Company / No Waiting Barber Shop / Parklane Hosiery (two stores) / Peck & Peck ladies' wear / Rochester Midtown Pharmacy (with luncheonette) / Rochester Telephone Corporation / Ryan, Limited men's wear / Scrantom's Stationers / Sidewalk Cafe / Tracy Shoes / US Post Office / Wegmans Food Market / Zava Coiffures
IN MIDTOWN TOWER
MIDTOWN TOWER HOTEL / TOP OF THE PLAZA RESTAURANT / Allyn, Clements & Small / Continental Can Company / Darcy, Bush & Osborne / Emil Muller Construction Company / Functional Broadcasting, Incorporated / George D.B. Bonbright & Company / Haskins & Sells / Herbert E. Wilson Associates / Hutchins Advertising Agency / Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company / Middleton, Giannini & Remington Attorneys at Law / Middletown Holdings, Corporation / Nellson, Incorporated / Pfaudler Permutit / Price Waterhouse / Robert A. Bristol / The Canada Life Insurance Company / The Consolidated Insurance Companies / Trailways Bus Terminal / WBBF Radio / Xerox
A nighttime view of what was originally known as the Lincoln First Bank. This 27-story office tower was completed in 1973 and was linked -by elevated Skyway- to MIDTOWN PLAZA. The building's official name has been changed twice over the years. It morphed into The Chase Tower in 1996 and The Metropolitan in 2015.
Photo from Wikipedia / Maximilian Kapitonoff
A Monorail, which circled the Garden Court of MIDTOWN PLAZA, was set up as part of an annual Christmas season spectacular. It quickly became a "Ra-Cha-Cha" holiday tradition.
Photo from www.midtownrochester.com
A parting view of the Public Plaza and Clock of Nations in the virtually vacant MIDTOWN mall. After the its official closing, in July 2008, the clock was relocated to the Greater Rochester International Airport terminal.
Photo from Wikipedia / "LTPowers"
Midtown Tower was left standing when MIDTOWN PLAZA was given a wrecking ball renovation, in September 2010. The building was remodeled between 2014 and 2016 and renamed Tower 280 at Midtown. Now a residential complex, it also houses offices, retail stores and an upscale restaurant.
Photo from http://www.pmbdesignstudio.com / Philip Michael Brown Design Studio
MIDTOWN PLAZA
East Main Street and South Clinton Avenue (Clinton Square)
Rochester, New York
Plans for the nation's first center city shopping mall got underway in late 1956. Gilbert and Gordon McCurdy and Maurice and Fred Forman, four Rochester retail moguls, met with architect Victor Gruen to discuss a concept to save their downtown department stores from the ravages of suburbanization.
Gruen's proposal was submitted to the McCurdys and Formans in September 1958 and was enthusiastically received. Plans for a "multi-functional" downtown civic center and retail complex were officially announced on September 25, 1958. Ground was broken on April 6, 1959.
MIDTOWN PLAZA was built under the auspices of the Midtown Holdings Company, which was under the control of McCurdy & Company ("McCurdy's") and the B. Forman Company. The 35 million dollar complex occupied an 8.6-acre site in Rochester's downtown core, which had previously been city blocks bisected by Cortland Street.
East Main Street and South Clinton Avenue (Clinton Square)
Rochester, New York
Plans for the nation's first center city shopping mall got underway in late 1956. Gilbert and Gordon McCurdy and Maurice and Fred Forman, four Rochester retail moguls, met with architect Victor Gruen to discuss a concept to save their downtown department stores from the ravages of suburbanization.
Gruen's proposal was submitted to the McCurdys and Formans in September 1958 and was enthusiastically received. Plans for a "multi-functional" downtown civic center and retail complex were officially announced on September 25, 1958. Ground was broken on April 6, 1959.
MIDTOWN PLAZA was built under the auspices of the Midtown Holdings Company, which was under the control of McCurdy & Company ("McCurdy's") and the B. Forman Company. The 35 million dollar complex occupied an 8.6-acre site in Rochester's downtown core, which had previously been city blocks bisected by Cortland Street.
Existing buildings were worked into the project, such as the McCurdy's and B. Forman stores. A new headquarters was also built for the Rochester Telephone Corporation. An ultra-modern merchandising mecca was dedicated on April 10, 1962, with over 5,000 Rochesterians on hand for the festivities. A ceremonial ribbon was cut by Mayor Henry Gillette and former mayor Peter Barry.
MIDTOWN PLAZA consisted of a 3-level, subterranean parking garage and 2-level, fully-enclosed shopping mall. These were topped off by an 18-floor office tower, with its 4 upper levels comprising the (78-room) Midtown Tower Hotel. The ground floor of the building included a multi-modal bus terminal. Anchoring the complex were the 6-level (487,000 square foot) McCurdys and 4-level (179,000 square foot) B. Forman.
Among the mall's fifty charter tenants were Casual Corner, Malcrest Shoes, Scrantom's Books & Stationery, Lane Bryant, No Waiting Barber Shop, Lincoln Rochester Trust Company and a Wegman's supermarket. There was also a 300-seat Community Auditorium.
The centerpiece of the facility was its Clock of Nations, which presented animated puppet shows of twelve cultures. These were from Ireland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Japan, Thailand, Poland, Italy, Canada, Germany, Isreal, Nigeria and the United States.
MIDTOWN PLAZA garnered much media coverage and served as a model for subsequent urban renewal projects across the United States. Renovations were completed in the 1970s and '80s, with the PLAZA being incorporated into the city's Skyway, an enclosed network of overhead pedestrian passageways. The Continental Sidewalk Cafe was converted to a standard mall Food Court in 1983. By this time, the shopping complex housed over 100 stores and services.
Unfortunately, the shift of downtown commerce to the suburbs, which MIDTOWN PLAZA had been created to curtail, had continued unabated. The B. Forman MIDTOWN store was shuttered in August 1994, with McCurdy's going dark in the following September. B. Forman was resurrected on November 25, 1994, but closed for good in January 1996. Virginia-based Peebles leased the the first floor of the former Forman's, with the remainder of the building, and the entirety of the old McCurdy's, being renovated into office spaces.
MIDTOWN PLAZA languished for the remainder of the 1990s. A California concern known as Arnold Industries acquired the struggling complex in November 1997. Their plans for a revitalization of the decaying facility were abandoned when the company declared bankruptcy in the year 2000. A subsequent plan, put forward by the Province of Palermo, Italy, would have reconfigured part of the moribund mall as an "Italian shopping experience." This project was also abandoned.
By 2006, redevelopment plans for the "hulking mess" centered around a partial demolition of the structure. The mall was shuttered on July 29, 2008, with its final tenant, the Adirondack Transit Bus Lines station, going dark on November 3, 2009.
The first phase of demolition, consisting of asbestos abatement, had commenced in July 2009. Demolition began, in earnest, on September 27, 2010. Three structures were spared; the Midtown Tower, Seneca Building and subterranean parking garage. The two buildings were renovated. Midtown Tower was rebuilt between 2014 and 2016. It reemerged as Tower 280 at Midtown, a residential, office and retail complex.
Originally, the Paetec Holding Corporation, a Rochester-based telecommunications company, was going to redevelop a portion of the former mall site with a 40-story corporate headquarters. The Great Recession prompted Paetec to drastically scale down their building plan. Eventually, they would be acquired by Arkansas' Windstream Communications. A Rochester office was installed in a downsized and renovated Seneca Building, which re-opened in September 2013.
A new headquarters for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle was built adjacent to the renovated Seneca Building. This facility was completed in May 2016. In the interim, Cortland and Elm Streets were extended through the bulk of the site. Future plans call for the new Golisano Center for the Performing Arts, and a 150-unit residential tower; these to be built on the remainder of the old MIDTOWN PLAZA parcel.
Sources:
The Rochester Beacon
MIDTOWN PLAZA consisted of a 3-level, subterranean parking garage and 2-level, fully-enclosed shopping mall. These were topped off by an 18-floor office tower, with its 4 upper levels comprising the (78-room) Midtown Tower Hotel. The ground floor of the building included a multi-modal bus terminal. Anchoring the complex were the 6-level (487,000 square foot) McCurdys and 4-level (179,000 square foot) B. Forman.
Among the mall's fifty charter tenants were Casual Corner, Malcrest Shoes, Scrantom's Books & Stationery, Lane Bryant, No Waiting Barber Shop, Lincoln Rochester Trust Company and a Wegman's supermarket. There was also a 300-seat Community Auditorium.
The centerpiece of the facility was its Clock of Nations, which presented animated puppet shows of twelve cultures. These were from Ireland, Puerto Rico, Scotland, Japan, Thailand, Poland, Italy, Canada, Germany, Isreal, Nigeria and the United States.
MIDTOWN PLAZA garnered much media coverage and served as a model for subsequent urban renewal projects across the United States. Renovations were completed in the 1970s and '80s, with the PLAZA being incorporated into the city's Skyway, an enclosed network of overhead pedestrian passageways. The Continental Sidewalk Cafe was converted to a standard mall Food Court in 1983. By this time, the shopping complex housed over 100 stores and services.
Unfortunately, the shift of downtown commerce to the suburbs, which MIDTOWN PLAZA had been created to curtail, had continued unabated. The B. Forman MIDTOWN store was shuttered in August 1994, with McCurdy's going dark in the following September. B. Forman was resurrected on November 25, 1994, but closed for good in January 1996. Virginia-based Peebles leased the the first floor of the former Forman's, with the remainder of the building, and the entirety of the old McCurdy's, being renovated into office spaces.
MIDTOWN PLAZA languished for the remainder of the 1990s. A California concern known as Arnold Industries acquired the struggling complex in November 1997. Their plans for a revitalization of the decaying facility were abandoned when the company declared bankruptcy in the year 2000. A subsequent plan, put forward by the Province of Palermo, Italy, would have reconfigured part of the moribund mall as an "Italian shopping experience." This project was also abandoned.
By 2006, redevelopment plans for the "hulking mess" centered around a partial demolition of the structure. The mall was shuttered on July 29, 2008, with its final tenant, the Adirondack Transit Bus Lines station, going dark on November 3, 2009.
The first phase of demolition, consisting of asbestos abatement, had commenced in July 2009. Demolition began, in earnest, on September 27, 2010. Three structures were spared; the Midtown Tower, Seneca Building and subterranean parking garage. The two buildings were renovated. Midtown Tower was rebuilt between 2014 and 2016. It reemerged as Tower 280 at Midtown, a residential, office and retail complex.
Originally, the Paetec Holding Corporation, a Rochester-based telecommunications company, was going to redevelop a portion of the former mall site with a 40-story corporate headquarters. The Great Recession prompted Paetec to drastically scale down their building plan. Eventually, they would be acquired by Arkansas' Windstream Communications. A Rochester office was installed in a downsized and renovated Seneca Building, which re-opened in September 2013.
A new headquarters for the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle was built adjacent to the renovated Seneca Building. This facility was completed in May 2016. In the interim, Cortland and Elm Streets were extended through the bulk of the site. Future plans call for the new Golisano Center for the Performing Arts, and a 150-unit residential tower; these to be built on the remainder of the old MIDTOWN PLAZA parcel.
Sources:
The Rochester Beacon
The Democrat & Chronicle (Rochester, New York)
https://rbj.net/1997 / "Downtown Office Buildings" / Rochester Business Journal
https://www.monorails.org
https://nyrej.com / New York Real Estate Journal
https://www.midtownrochester.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.cityofrochester.gov
https://www.rochesterhistory.org
https://rbj.net/1997 / "Downtown Office Buildings" / Rochester Business Journal
https://www.monorails.org
https://nyrej.com / New York Real Estate Journal
https://www.midtownrochester.com (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.cityofrochester.gov
https://www.rochesterhistory.org
"Midtown Plaza (Rochester)" article on Wikipedia
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