Architecture firms Rochester NY

Organization Title: Town of Rochester

Program goals/description:

The Town of Rochester has opted for team brought by Bayer Landscape Architecture, PLLC, a Honeoye Falls-based firm with knowledge of restoration and rehab of historic landscapes, to make a master arrange for Genesee Valley Park West, created by Ernest Law Olmsted, Sr.

Documentation and research into the park’s Olmsted heritage and making it through features is a key element from the project. They includes NAOP trustee Katie Eggers Comeau, architectural historian at Bero Architecture PLLC, because the local historic consultant, and Charles Beveridge, part of the NAOP Leadership Council, to supply additional historic landscape analysis from the national perspective. Also around the team are architecture firm LaBella Affiliates and waterfront design specialists Moffatt &lifier Nichol.

Bayer Landscape Architecture principal Mark Bayer, project manager Zakery Steele, and Katie Eggers Comeau (then using the Landmark Society of Western New You are able to, with Bero Architecture) formerly worked with around the Inventory of Historic Parklands around town of Rochester, which received an Recognition Award of Excellence in the New You are able to Upstate chapter from the American Society of Landscape Designers this year. That project involved documentation and analysis of parkland around town over fifty years old, in addition to a number of newer parks with possibility of “exceptional significance” under National Register recommendations. Parks examined incorporated the Olmsted parks, later large-scale city parks, along with other elements now incorporated around town park system for example street malls and historic cemeteries. The resulting report offers the City with extensive documentation, including historic photographs and maps, look at current condition and integrity, and analysis of National Register qualifications possibility of each park. They came to the conclusion that twelve from the parks not presently indexed by the nation's Register appear qualified for listing, which the machine in general may be eligible for a National Historic Landmark status.

Genesee Valley Park is among three large “pleasure ground” parks anchoring Rochester’s Olmsted park system, developed in 1888-1893. The machine is built to include hooking up parkways and also to incorporate existing neighborhood parks and squares. Whilst not all of the parkways were built as planned, the 3 large parks were substantially implemented and therefore are in the centre of what's now a comprehensive municipal park system. The Olmsted firm continued to be active in the growth and development of the Rochester system in to the 1910s, enhancing the local park commission design and implement new facilities, and, considerably, assisting to mitigate harm to Genesee Valley Park once the new route from the Erie Canal bisected the park.

Genesee Valley Park is a good example of Olmsted’s distinctive pastoral style, benefiting from lightly moving terrain round the Genesee River south of downtown Rochester. Olmsted designated the area of the park west from the river for active leisure use, for example boating. John C. Olmsted advised the Park Commission on appropriate methods to incorporate additional sports venues into this west portion of the park because he oversaw implementation from the original design in to the early twentieth century. Genesee Valley Park West continues to be most intensively developed area of the park, now that contains an skating rink, pool, rowing center, tennis and baseball courts, along with other facilities. The goal of the present project would be to evaluate current conditions of structures and landscape features, provide strategies for historic landscape treatment, and convey schematic designs for that park, particularly concentrating on a redesign of cruising facilities.