Warsaw on the Genesee

I was in Rochester today, and that City confuses the hell out of me. I have no idea how to get around. None; and I have a pretty decent sense of direction.

I have been to the newish 4th App Div several times, and it’s a typical postmodern courthouse; clean, distinguished, but somewhat uninteresting architecturally or design-wise.

I had never before been to the Supreme Court at 99 Exchange Boulevard. If you think Buffalo has issues with urban renewal, you should see the concrete plaza out Rochester. The Supreme Court is in a building that looks like an above-ground bunker. The entryway is reminiscent of an airport, with about 3 or 4 security lanes with x-rays and magnetometers. It’s not a nice airport, though. It looks more Albania than New York.

Once inside, there’s a handy information desk, which was quite useful, and a bank of elevators. The brass hardware hasn’t ever been polished ever. The polite word for it would be patina, I suppose.

Although I noticed today that the brass hardware on the sometimes-working elevators at City Court in Buffalo has simply been painted over with a nasty beige industrial-strength color.

The courtrooms themselves are like 70s-era DMV offices. The grey asbestos-looking ceilings are illuminated by fluorescents, and instead of real wood, you’re looking at woodgrain formica.

I have no idea why architecture and design was so downright crappy back then. But Rochester’s Supreme Court facilities need a serious makeover.