Brian Sharp

@SharpRoc

One of the most distinctive features of the Rochester skyline — the "wings of progress" atop the downtown Times Square Building — are illuminated again.

"My thought is, it's the Empire State Building of Upstate New York," said building owner Rich Calabrese Jr., whose family bought the building at Broad and Exchange streets 15 years ago. "It's got to be lit, for everyone to see."

The wings were lit when the original Genesee Valley Trust building opened 80-some years ago. The building, with its cornerstone laid on the fateful day of Oct. 29, 1929, was the work of architect Ralph T. Walker. The structure rises 260 feet, with the aluminum wings — weighing 12,000 pounds each, including a steel support structure — stretching the final 40-plus feet.

As the decades passed, the lights went dark. Calabrese suspects it was a matter of cost. But with the help of Aadtech Electrical and Go Green International, both with offices in Rochester, the old fixtures were replaced with energy-efficient lights — placed well above the building's peregrine falcon nesting box. The lights first were flipped on last Wednesday.. A crew then worked into the night last Thursday making adjustments.

"We came in that Thursday, probably until 10 or 10:30 at night," Calabrese said. "We drove around the city as the electricians were tweaking the lights (to bathe the wings from base to tip). When they were done, I was tickled. So then I drove on the expressway ... and as I came over the Freddie Sue bridge, I looked over and got choked up — because my dad wasn't here to see it."

The downtown skyline has gradually become more visual in the night sky, with lighting added to the exterior of the Central Library (Rundel) building, the top of Tower 280 (Midtown Tower), and Xerox Tower. Lighting the wings was something the late Richard Calabrese had always wanted to do.

"I did it for the skyline. I also did it for him," Calabrese said of his father, who died in May 2014.

Since the lights went on, people have taken pictures and sent them along, he said, noting one in particular, taken from the Wilder Building down the street, with the view from his father's old office window.

BDSHARP@Gannett.com