In 1954, Stamford, Connecticut established its Urban Renewal Commission which would usher in the city’s next century of progress. Inspired by other large cities in the region, the Commission set about declaring blight, seizing and demolishing properties, expanding roadways, and luring big commercial tenants as part of an urban renewal program that extended about one mile through the center of the city. The only problem was that these tactics happened slowly, leaving the city with vacant lots for decades. Two housing projects were the first to arrive on the corridor: St. John’s Towers (Victor Bisharat, 1968–1971) and Bayview Towers (Robert L. Wilson, 1973). These were followed by three more buildings designed by Victor Bisharat for the developer F.D. Rich Company in the early 1970s. It was the 1980s before the bulk of the commercial office buildings began appearing on the cleared lots with one of the largest resting vacant until 2019.