Inside Downtown 2014

Look on the Exterior: The original design of the distinctive eleven story tower plus the open corner plaza and double height glass walled banking hall. The tower is distinguished by the ten hexagonal piloti (architecturally expressed columns, upon which a building is set above the ground) that allow the tower to seemingly float above the plaza. The piloti are set off by a single mass of polished black granite that contains an exit stair and appears, at first, to be the only point of contact with the ground. The tower is crowned by a corrugated concrete trough roof, which sits upon the walls of glass of the Penthouse, much like the banking hall below. The banking hall with its corrugated concrete trough roof set atop the two part composition of glass curtain wall and solid brick walls is a distinctive expression of mid-century modern design.

You’ll enjoy knowing: One East Avenue was built for Security Trust Company, a large Rochester based bank, which began in 1892 and eventually became a subsidiary of Bank of America. When Security Trust desired to construct their new “Security East” office, they hired architect, William F. Cann for his renown modern design sense “to give Rochester something different, functional, yet progressive in a bank building” as described in a 1964 news article during the building’s construction.

Several of Cann’s strikingly modern bank designs across the country have begun to be recognized and preserved for their importance to high style mid-century modern design. The most famous of William Cann’s designs, seen across the country, were the distinctive cross gabled, orange roofed Howard Johnson motor lodge registration buildings.

The 130 foot long wall mural in the banking hall was commissioned from John C. Menihan (1908-1992) as part of the original design.

Menihan was a Rochesterian who rose to national recognition for the series of large high relief murals he designed for a number of local companies including Xerox and R. T. French, of which the mural at One East Avenue is the largest. The mural, an abstract CONTINUES ON PAGE 8 LANDMARKSOCIETY.ORG | 7