My rebranding proposal for Main & Clinton neighborhood

Main & Clinton

The Main & Clinton neighborhood is the center of downtown Rochester. For decades it was the heart of retail in Rochester. Today the Main & Clinton neighborhood is fundamentally different from how it existed for the past half century. This neighborhood needs to be rebranded to reflect these fundamental changes and keep its momentum moving in a positive direction.

Proposed block-busting

Main & Clinton is 4 superblocks

At midcentury Main & Clinton was a thriving retail center and an example to cities across the country. The Sibley building was home to the largest department store between New York and Chicago; Midtown Plaza was the nation’s first downtown indoor mall and was believed to be the solution to the midcentury urban crisis. The new urban crisis—depopulation and urban sprawl—made the retail giants of the past unsustainable. The massive structures they created became awkward homes to smaller tenants who wished to capitalize on the central location of Main & Clinton. Sadly these structures have fallen into disrepair after years of disinvestment by building owners. The superblock streetscape is unfriendly to pedestrian traffic. The open air bus terminal is the only thing that brings people onto the streets. Without it the neighborhood would appear entirely devoid of life.

Residential conversion of Midtown Tower

Today over 75% of the neighborhood is ‘development sites’. Midtown Plaza which closed in 2008 is undergoing demolition and will be subdivided into several smaller parcels. The Sibley building may lose its primary tenant when MCC announces the location for its new downtown campus. The Renaissance Square project died in 2009 but it remains a dormant development site and many of its buildings are owned by the county. The open air bus transfer function that has operated along Main St appears to be leaving the neighborhood with City Council’s 2010 approval for the abandonment of Mortimer St.

PAETEC headquarters rendering

The Main & Clinton neighborhood has hit bottom of a long and painful decline. The neighborhood now stands in a transitional phase where the development strategies employed today will define the character of the neighborhood for decades to come. Rebranding the neighborhood will add to the energy and excitement of the area and keep the development momentum strong.

Three of downtown’s neighborhoods are named for their public spaces. Public spaces are defining for the neighborhoods that surround them because they serve as a community gathering space and are flexible in their utility. A new public space is planned for the midtown block that has the potential to redefine the Main & Clinton neighborhood. Renaming the neighborhood after the new space could focus perceptions of the neighborhood away from declining entities like Sibley’s and the Ren Square block and on the positive developments of the midtown block.