A local group is trying to revitalize a section of city that is the first thing many visitors see when they come to Rochester.
The Washington Square Park Community Association is working to reinvigorate this historical section of downtown, boarded by Broad Street, Chestnut Street and the Genesee River.
President of the Washington Square Park Community Association, Jason Schwingle, says it's one of the very first public squares in the city, and its also home to some of Rochester's largest organizations.
"The Xerox building, you have what was formerly the Bausch and Lomb building, now Legacy Tower, you have Excellus in our area, M&T just moved in. and of course some phenomenal organizations like Geva Theatre, St. Mary's," he said.
Schwingle says it's also a growing residential area as well.
He says the association was awarded $15 thousand dollars by the Rochester Area Comunity Foundation to begin the process of revitalizing the park.
That includes pre-development work with the Community Design Center.
"They really will provide the professional expertise on how to go about developing this sort of mini-charette that we'll start with, and then hopefully from that that'll take us to 'shovels in the ground' and doing some real work," he said.
Schwingle says the "sky's the limit with this area."
The community association says Washington Square Park is a historical asset to the City of Rochester, and the public square is an historically significant gathering place.
Here's a linkto the association