Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic...?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the exception of some excessively-wide downtown thoroughfares, Rochester looks pretty good. Retail, lodging, and Clinic facilities look like they're clustered together nicely, and everything is clean and orderly. The bus shelters are interesting; they have more of a permanent structure appearance than the ones I've seen in most cities. The former theater housing the Barnes & Noble store looks rather like one of the John Eberson creations that was built with an atmospheric ceiling that looked like a night sky when the auditorium was darkened.

I lived in Rochester when the long-vacant Chateau was converted to a Barnes & Noble. It was quite an endeavor, with a decade or two of pigeon poop inside. The second story is freestanding, so as not to disturb the restored ornate walls of the atmospheric theater.

 

The extra-wide street is Broadway -- U.S. 63, the north-south spine in a city that is not particularly pedestrian-friendly. Downtown is quite prosperous because of the Clinic. And there is a nice urban feel to the surrounding neighborhoods. But all the growth (Rochester has topped 100,000) is modern sprawl on land annexed to the city.

Looks way better than the last couple of towns you've showcased.  Thanks!

The former theater housing the Barnes & Noble store looks rather like one of the John Eberson creations that was built with an atmospheric ceiling that looked like a night sky when the auditorium was darkened.

 

My first thought when I saw the inside of the bookstore was "It looks like the Akron Civic!"

Nice shots, but I consider any album of Rochester, MN without a picture of the Ear of Corn Water Tower to be incomplete.

A lot of big buildings for a city that size.

Nearly all of them affiliated with Mayo Clinic. Even the tallest, the nearly featureless white tower in the background of many of these pictures, was built, I believe, as residential, largely to accommodate wealthy foreign patients at the Clinic for extended stays.

interesting -- i always kind of wondered what this place looked like. its fairly urban but not at all attractive being it appears to have developed during that 60s-70s low point in architecture. the chateau b&n redevelopment is awesome tho.

 

re the famed hospital -- i believe the specialties of the big three -- mayo, cleveland clinic and johns hopkins all differ quite a bit do they not? so to choose i guess it would depend on your illness and their strengths.

Nice shots, but I consider any album of Rochester, MN without a picture of the Ear of Corn Water Tower to be incomplete.

 

Here you are!

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c237/bwilli910/Rochester003.jpg

On the question of Clinc vs Mayo I certainly feel the urban form and connection with the rest of the city is much better with Mayo than Clinic. Even their public spaces are very accessible. I get so upset with the Clinic and their newest green space project (the one with the lengthy pool) because people cannot reasonably access it. I also think University Hospital does a pretty good job connecting with the urban framework.

Rochester just doesn't do "urban" well. Even the Dakotas prioritized their main streets for people, while in Rochester what urban strips exist are inconsistent and car-oriented. Certainly ranks at the bottom of Upper-Midwestern cities. I'd suggest Eau Claire or La Crosse over in WI or if you need something Minnesotan before hitting up MSP, Northfield and Red Wing are better detours than Rochester. Really, just about any sizable town in MN is much more intact and better than Rochester. It's pretty big thanks to this little-known clinic whose name is all but unknown and that's all it really has going for it.

Downtown Rochester has some decent little stretches, but on the whole, you're right. It is not pedestrian-friendly. When I wrote for the newspaper there in the early '90s, I did several columns on the disregard for pedestrians and bicyclists. I think it's gotten somewhat better for biking. I also wrote some articles comparing downtown Rochester and downtown LaCrosse -- where there was a very dynamic downtown organization and director who got governments and banks and corporations to have a stake and make low-cost loans available to local entrepreneurs. The feel and architecture of LaCrosse is really nice. I'll see if I can find some old photos to scan (haven't been there in years).