Bull's Head Plans and Current State

 

At the corner of a few of Rochester's wide boulevards there stands an interesting intersection in the district dubbed "The Bull's Head". 100 Years ago electrified trolleys would turn down these streets. It's a major intersection in the west of the city, where W Main meets Genessee and splits into West Ave and Chili Ave. On this intersection there's a beautiful historic Methodist Church, St. Mary's Hospital and several boarded up shops and empty lots.

  

This street view of 2012 still shows a handful of buildings, all are demolished now and in it's place stands an empty lot. It might just be that these lots were demolished for upcoming development.

Speaking of which, the Bull's Head Revitalization Project. There's a handful of similar concepts that I think would improve the look of the area, all with some drawbacks, but isn't that life.

 

The project would reconfigue the streetscape to mitigate the awkward grid alignment and close intersections of major Rochester boulevards. The plan would add a roundabout, a new RPD station, plaza space for outdoor recreation or dining, and plenty of "mixed-use" space and multi-family apartments.

Rochester has very little in the way of apartment buildings, something the city seems aware of and has been trying to mitigate with newer buildings on the old eat inner loop, "The Nathaniel" apartment building in the heart of downtown and a new apartment building on S. Goodman.

Of course the city is losing population year over year, and if current trends don't reverse then the population will fall below 200,000 for the first time since the 19th century. Rochester has been trying very hard to reverse this trend, whether it will be able to is another question.