City of Rochester – High Falls Waterworks Building and Gorge Vertical Access

LaBella was the first company to locate our main office in the High Falls Historic District in the late 1980’s and still maintains our headquarters in the former Button Factory, which anchors the district within Downtown Rochester.

With the Genesee River Gorge and High Falls in our backyard, LaBella has partnered with the City of Rochester and the local municipal and private utilities to revitalize and stabilize building structures, trails, and the gorge walls themselves since 1991.

The project designed a new park at Upper Falls and a vertical lift and stairway structure that would transport visitors to the new park. Work included design of a small plaza at the base of the vertical lift that included an informational kiosk, historic and nature interpretive signage, a small amphitheater group gathering area, and handicapped ramping down to a new trail connection to the Upper Falls.

LaBella designed a 750 ft. long paved trail along the Genesee River connecting to a 400 SF river overlook with native stone walls and seating, and interpretive signs, and an 800 SF falls overlook with views of the river, falls and gorge walls. Site plans allowed for the addition of a zip-line feature to be added in the future.

A glass and steel lift structure contained 2 elevators with glass walls allowing continuous views of the falls and a stairway access to the gorge floor as well.  The vertical lift will be connected to the existing Water Works building that will serve to control access to the lift as well as contain restrooms, a gift shop, and other amenities.