Midtown Plaza (Rochester)

Midtown Plaza, with the Clock of Nations in the center.

Midtown Plaza (1962–2008) was an indoor shopping mall in downtown Rochester, New York, the first urban indoor mall in the United States.

History

Designed by Victor Gruen, Midtown Plaza was dedicated on April 10, 1962 as the first downtown indoor mall in the United States. The first enclosed shopping center had been Southdale Center in suburban Minneapolis in 1956, also designed by Gruen. The idea for this mall started with discussions between Gilbert J.C. McCurdy, owner of the McCurdy's department stores and Maurice F. Forman, owner of the B. Forman Co. department stores. At that time strip plazas were growing in popularity. Though both owners had opened branch stores they were concerned about Downtown Rochester's viability and came up with the idea of an indoor shopping center.

Gruen was at the height of his influence when Midtown was completed and the project attracted international attention, including a nationally televised feature report on NBC-TV's Huntley-Brinkley newscast the night of its opening in April 1962. City officials and planners from around the globe came to see Gruen's solution to the mid-century urban crisis. Midtown won several design awards.

Gruen described the aerial view of Rochester as a giant parking lot with a few buildings to inconvenience traffic flow. His intention was to create a pedestrian friendly town square for Rochester, NY, a medium sized city near the mouth of the Genesee River. He incorporated art, benches, fountains, a four hundred seat auditorium and a sidewalk cafe into his plans hoping to encourage the sort of social intermingling that he saw as the enriching essence of urban life.

Later in life Gruen dismissed the strictly commercial suburban malls as "those bastard developments" but continued to hold Midtown in high regard. It is probably the project that most closely followed his plan and shared his civic vision. In addition to the shopping center, the Plaza also includes a skyscraper office building, which at one time held an upscale hotel and restaurant—the Top Of The Plaza -- on its top four floors. Gap Mangione played at the Top Of The Plaza numerous times over the years, and the restaurant was a popular site for receptions, business parties and special-occasion dinners.

Midtown Plaza was economically vibrant, and a center of retail activity for its region, during its first 20 years of operation. It began to struggle in the 1980s as a number of suburban shopping malls opened outside of the city, while the region's population increasingly spread outward from the city center into suburban and even rural areas. Surrounded by high pockets of poverty, Midtown struggled to keep tenants. Midtown's struggles increased in the mid-1990s when the mall's two anchors, McCurdy's and Forman's, closed in 1994. Their closing was quickly followed by the closing of the Midtown branch of Wegmans Food Markets, a regional high end grocery chain. Once considered the sign of a New Urbanism, the Plaza was placed on the list of 2002 Empire Zones, and grew to be considered a symbolic victim of suburban sprawl.

During its last years, the mall's tenants included Peebles department store, Radio Shack, Payless Shoes, some downscale clothing stores, a dollar store, two jewelry stores, a gift shop and a US post office. Located directly underneath Midtown Plaza is a three level, 1,843 space parking garage.

Mall's closing

It was announced on October 16, 2007 that Midtown Plaza will be knocked down to make way for the new PAETEC headquarters via eminent domain. The PAETEC tower will be about 300,000 square feet (28,000 m²) of office space in a 8 - 12 story building. The company down sized from a 40 story tower and 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m²). of space. Ground may be broken in the fall of 2010.

The final Christmas season at Midtown Plaza took place in 2007. A 40-foot (12 m) Douglas Fir was donated to the mall by Dave Manioci, Midtown's Chief Engineer. A tribute to Midtown took place on December 1, 2007, which attracted thousands of people from Rochester, NY and the surrounding areas to what was called "a magical event." The beloved Monorail had its last run on December 24, 2007. All retail and office space at Midtown except for the adjoining Euclid Building wing was to conclude business activity on or before July 29, 2008, while some demolition work on unoccupied portions of the building complex had already begun before that date. The Euclid building, which housed some offices and the studios of Clear Channel Communications' six Rochester area radio stations, closed at midnight on December 31, 2008. Clear Channel moved to new quarters in the HSBC Bank downtown Rochester office tower, in a studio complex formerly occupied by CBS.

On July 29, 2008 Midtown Plaza closed its doors to the public for the last time, as scheduled.^[1]

Many retail and service businesses which had been operating at Midtown Plaza during its final months have already relocated and re-opened in other locations in or near downtown Rochester, some of them taking advantage of relocation help offered by the City of Rochester.

On Tuesday, November 3, 2009 the last occupant of Midtown Plaza, the Adirondack Transit Lines bus station, closed. The bus station relocated five blocks, away from midtown Rochester, near the railroad station.

Clock of Nations

Midtown Plaza was well-known for its Clock of Nations designed by Geri Kavanaugh. The clock, which represents 12 nations, has 12 cylinders each with a scene with puppets for each nation. Considered a significant piece of art when it was unveiled, the original puppetry was not well maintained and was replaced in the mid-70s with the work of a local housewife. The clock has been temporarily moved to the Greater Rochester International Airport terminal, before it moves to a permanent home at Golisano Children's Hospital at Strong Memorial Hospital following completion of that facility's expansion.

Destruction

On September 27, 2010, demolition began on Midtown Plaza. Mayor Robert Duffy states that within a few months the site will be ready for the construction of the new Paetec headquarters.^[2]

References

1. ^ Democrat and Chronicle, Rochester's Midtown Plaza memories live on as an era ends, July 26, 2008
2. ^ http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wxxi/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1706036/WXXI.Local.Stories/Midtown.Plaza.Demolition.Underway

Further reading

• The Heart of Our Cities, Victor Gruen
• Mall Maker, M. Jeffrey Hardwick

External links

• Photo Essay of Midtown Plaza Monorail
• Vintage photo of "Clock of Nations"
• A Nearly-new Midtown Plaza appears prominently in this promotional video for Rochester, NY
• Trailways Bus Station Moves to Cumberland Street

Coordinates: 43°09′23″N 77°36′17″W / 43.15652°N 77.60480°W / 43.15652; -77.60480