DEVELOPMENT: Midtown's history to get a look
By Christine Carrie Fien on Apr. 9th, 2008
The Landmark Society is weighing in with a "not so fast" on the Midtown project.
The city is expecting $55 million from the state to tear down the plaza and get the site ready for Paetec's new headquarters. But before the city gets the money, the project has to undergo a historical 
review by the State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation. And, Landmark Society representatives say, given the plaza's historical and sentimental significance, the office could determine that the plaza is eligible for the National Register of Historic Places.
Typically, says the society's Katie Eggers Comeau, a site has to be 50 years old to qualify for the list. Midtown falls just short of that, having been dedicated in 1962. Sites less than 50 years old can still qualify, she says, if they're found to be exceptionally significant.
"We think there are a lot of indications that Midtown does have exceptional significance," Comeau says.
Midtown was the first downtown enclosed mall in the country. It also has local significance, Comeau says, as a one-time town center and holiday destination.
If the state does deem Midtown eligible for the list, the city will have to look at whether its plans would have a negative impact on the site, "which total demolition, I'm assuming, would be considered a negative impact," Comeau says.
The city would have to try to avoid or mitigate that impact, she says, which doesn't mean that the state would prevent Midtown's demolition. The city could do a number of things to satisfy the state, she says, and the two governments would work together.
"Ranging from total demolition to total preservation, there's probably going to be something in the middle," Comeau says. "Sometimes this process goes through and the determination is to demolish the whole thing but photograph it first."
"We just don't want, in the enthusiasm over the project - which does have a lot of potential benefits for the city - we don't want people to lose sight of what could be lost," she says.
City Corporation Counsel Tom Richards says the city will deal with whatever the state review determines.
"We'll certainly do what's required," he says.
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Carmen on April 14th, 2008
Oh that's just great. Preservationists are often accused of preventing progress and, although I certainly consider myself a preservationist, this is certainly the case here. Midtown's very existence prevents future development of our desperate downtown. Midtown is disgusting. Its claim to fame of having been the first indoor mall is exactly why it was doomed from the get go.
The sentimentalists and Pittsford-ites will have to visit a museum somewhere to recapture the lost memories of their youth. Goodness knows they haven't visited Midtown in decades.
Poor Rochester. Left to debate the merits of a hideous, empty, shopping mall now serving as little more than a homeless shelter.
Give us a break Landmark Society. Find yourselves a real project to remain relevant. This isn't it.
Spanky on April 15th, 2008
Well put. Midtown needs to be put to sleep. Downtown needs businesses and restaurants to begin the long process of large numbers of people living down there again. (if its possible)