JULY 18, 2026 — In December last year, the City Council of Rochester, New York, has voted unanimously to replace its century-old official flag with a design centred on the city’s modern corporate logo.
Passed under Ordinance No. 2025-403, the legislative amendment retires the historic tricolour banner in anticipation of the emblem’s 50th anniversary.
First designed in 1910 and formalized in 1934, the previous flag featured vertical bands of blue, white, and yellow. At its centre sat the traditional European coat of arms of city founder Nathaniel Rochester, which depicted a crane, three crescent moons, a dark horizontal bar, and the word “ROCHESTER” inscribed below.
According to municipal documents, officials claimed the heraldic banner “no longer reflects the branding or shared symbolism embraced by the broader community” and cited long-standing public advocacy for a “more modern and inclusive identity.”
Prior to the vote, Mayor Malik D. Evans noted that the historic flag rarely appeared in everyday use, stating that “few people are even aware that the official flag does not already bear the city mark.”
The newly adopted flag features a solid field of “Ontario Harbor Blue” charged with the white city mark.
Although early proposals envisioned the emblem alone on a blue field, the final approved legislation amended the design to enclose the logo within a circular text border. The words “Flour City – Flower City – City of Rochester, N.Y.” are rendered along the perimeter in a Franklin Gothic font.
The central emblem was created in 1975 by Lee Green, Rochester’s first graphic designer, under the United States Federal Design Improvement Program, and was copyrighted the following year.
The logo is a graphic hybrid intended to represent two historical local nicknames: a stylized water wheel symbolizes the “Flour City,” while the radial geometry of a five-petalled lilac blossom represents the “Flower City.”
Image: IndysNotHere (CC BY-SA 4.0) & City of Rochester
