 His intention was to create a pedestrian-friendly town square for Rochester, NY, a medium-sized city near the mouth of the Genesee River.He incorporated art, benches, fountains, a four hundred seat auditorium and a sidewalk cafe into his plans hoping to encourage the sort of social intermingling that he saw as the enriching essence of urban life.Later in life, Gruen dismissed the strictly commercial suburban malls as "those bastard developments" but continued to hold Midtown in high regard.