So said Kinky Friedman.
And since I am the beer holder this evening, let’s talk about a real beauty, 13 Cataract Street.
This wonderful old and sadly neglected building is 13 Cataract Street, here in our city. The folks who own it plan to tear it down. A bunch of us, the “historical fanatics” as we’re known to some of our neighbors, want to see it stay with us. It is, after all, older than our grandparents – over 110 years old – and it would be a true folly to lose this wonderful trace of our fast receding past. Who wants to tear down their grandparents?
Originally, in the 1880s, 13 Cataract Street was without the giant metal carbuncle which now obscures its southwestern face. In a city plat from 1918, the building’s footprint looked like this:
Our subject is underneath the W and the A in ATWATER, and was then a part of the Standard Brewing Co. campus. As you can see, in those days there was a kind of courtyard to the south, facing the river, and no carbuncle.
In a 1935 plat, we can see that 13 Cataract Street has been joined by another building, to the east. By then additions had been made to include an enclosed platform for loading and unloading from the adjacent railroad tracks. Like this:
Standard Brewing had become Cataract Brewing. The new building to the east of 13 Cataract Street, also a landmark here and also slated for demolition, is narrow and very deep, running from Cataract almost 200 feet south to the railroad.
So to begin to get at the beauty of Cataract Street, we need to get rid of all the crappy additions, and get back to the original fabric of the historic structure. All the stuff in the foreground, including the giant box at the left in this view, can go.
And voila! 13 Cataract Street would have terrific views of the High Falls and the river, and would be a shining beacon at the eastern edge of the pedestrian bridge, the Pont de Rennes, which spans the river and offers incredible views of the Falls and all of the surrounding city.
Then we could go back and create a wonderful esplanade along the eastern banks of the river, from the city’s park to the south of 13 all along the river,
terminating in a great public plaza at the foot of the bridge. Here the historic structure that is planned to remain, and 13 Cataract, could frame a new gem of a space in the city’s public realm. Here:
Perhaps you can get a better sense of the possibilities by taking a look at this aerial image from the late 40s or early 50s:
In those days, the bridge still carried vehicles. The fulcrum of space between 13 Cataract and its neighbor to the north is located at the right middle of the image, near the bottom.
Maybe it is easier to see the pivotal location of a restored 13 Cataract Street in this 1982 aerial:
And oh, the beauty we can now beer-hold! 13 Cataract Street and its neighbors can now take their place in a larger vision for High Falls that includes the work already completed on the other side of the river, the soon to be redeveloped RG&E Beebee Station, the GardenAerial on the bridge, the trails looping the falls, the city park, the reused Gorsline Building, and all the other terrific and valuable things going on in this part of our city.
In the last few weeks, we have been talking here about precious historic resources, the possibilities that a great old building represents, the very real value this building can embody for its owners and for the city, and the role that this place can play in enhancing our public realm. There are so many good reasons to save 13 Cataract.
Cheers!
I WANT the falls view when I come for my beer!
We’re doing what we can to make sure that you will have multiple Falls views for your next cold one here.
You might want to check out a possible version of future development at Cataract Street by visiting:
http://www.rochestersubway.com.
Mike has cooked up some pretty cool graphics to illustrate what could happen.
You and Mike are both focusing hard on the big picture, which clearly makes the best case for preservation. With my properties, their deteriorated condition at purchase means that risk is plentiful and resources are scarce. So I’ve learned to take a phased approach. Stabilize, improve, occupy, improve further. Pay as you go. I wonder if that might produce a win-win here.
Why not ask the company to take the $750 thousand that Tim says is the cost of turning the Standard building into a parking lot, and use that to minimally stabilize the 2 structures. Roofs, windows, paint, whatever. At the same time, develop the vistor’s center using the packaging building as called for in the current plan. Mr. Lozyniak says the neighborhood is too dangerous to stay open after dark. That’s his stated risk.
So why not offer to form a team of stakeholders, tasked with coming up with a master plan for the brewery end of the Saint Paul corridor? The team could include NAB, developers, design professionals, preservationists, city staff, funders, community leaders from the surrounding neighborhoods – in short, anyone with skills, interests, ambitions or connections. Maybe start with a charrette.
While all this is going on, the center can operate in the smaller building with curtailed hours. The company could begin to see a return in the near term. Then as the brewery district moves through implementation, the Standard building is likewise incrementally improved.
Perhaps a phased approach could be employed in some way to save the building, mitigate risk, and allow the community to execute a more comprehensive plan that includes many more assets in the district.
Jim, thanks for joining in again. As ever, you are right on target.
Of course a phased approach would substantially assist in managing the building owner’s risk. Like your own projects, many of my experiences have employed a stabilize/plan/improve-step-by-step approach with great success.
Even really big projects – I did one once that was a National Landmark District with 94 landmarked buildings -benefit from this way of working.
And if the owners were, for example, to donate the building, the incremental approach would remain the best choice. I am quite confident that any developer would proceed in this fashion.
As for assembling a team of stakeholders and experts, some of that work has already begun. All some of us need is a stated desire to get started and I think quite a good bunch of folks would be happy to jump in and add value to the enterprise.
Ready to get started!