The Kodak Tower was constructed on the site of a former factory next to several seven story Camera Works buildings that clustered around the site. Construction began in 1912 and was completed in 1914 with Kodak founder
George Eastman presiding over the project. Upon its completion in 1914, the tower held the title of the
tallest building in Rochester, New York until the 1960s.
Design and construction Kodak Tower was designed by
Howard Wright Cutler and
Gordon & Kaelber Architects with a
French Renaissance style. When construction began in 1912, the building was designed as a 16-story high-rise with a steel skeleton faced with
terra cotta. The building overtook the
Powers Building to become the tallest building in the city upon its completion in 1914.
Spire Addition In the late 1920s, the architects of the
Genesee Valley Trust building announced plans to mount an architectural feature that would threaten the Kodak Tower's status as the city's tallest building. Following the announcement Eastman Kodak hired an architect to construct 3 more floors on the building with a mansard roof and aluminum tower bringing the tower to a height of feet in 1935.
Peregrine Falcon Webcam In 1994 Dennis Money, the founder of the Rochester Peregrine Falcon Project, received permission from Kodak to install a nest box on the spire of the Kodak Office Tower. The nest box was installed as part of an effort to reintroduce
peregrine falcons to eastern North America after the species was listed on the
U.S. Endangered Species list. In 1998 a pair of peregrine falcons known to the public as Mariah & Cabot-Sirocco began nesting in the nest box. The reintroduction effort became popular over the web after Brad Carney, an IT Consultant at
Eastman Kodak, coordinated an effort to install web cams around the nest and made the web cam imagery available online for the public to view. The web cam quickly became a popular attraction on the Kodak website. Mariah hatched 43 falcon chicks at the top of the Kodak Tower until the nest box was relocated to the
Times Square Building in 2008 when
Eastman Kodak announced plans to do extensive restoration work on the Tower. ==Architecture==