The record
A slab shown from 1995 in the Wintergarden of Bausch & Lomb's Rochester tower and sent in 2014 to Galderma in Switzerland; where it stands now is unknown.
The slab was donated to Bausch & Lomb when the company first moved into its tower in downtown Rochester in 1995, and stood prominently in the building's Wintergarden, which was used by employees and open to the public, WHAM-TV reported in November 2014. Rochester's City Newspaper mentioned the Berlin Wall fragment on display in the Bausch & Lomb headquarters in October 2011, in a feature on an artist's work titled 'Every Wall Falls Eventually'.
Bausch & Lomb moved its headquarters to New Jersey in 2013 after its purchase by Valeant, and the building was bought by Buckingham Properties. According to the new owner, the company quietly moved the slab out of Rochester in August 2014. A company spokesperson, Kristy Guerra, told WHAM that it had been given to a chief executive in Switzerland as part of a business deal: 'It was sent to Galderma', and 'It was part of the divestiture'. The building, now Legacy Tower, keeps its glass-enclosed Wintergarden. Where in Switzerland the slab went is not recorded in anything read here.
How did it get here?
Donated to Bausch & Lomb in 1995; sent by the company to Galderma in Switzerland in August 2014.
Sources
Listed by the Berlin Wall Archive as #355.
Rochester's slab of Berlin Wall is gone — 13WHAM (Wayback Machine copy) ↗
Cody Combs, 12 November 2014: the slab, donated to Bausch & Lomb when it moved into the tower in 1995 and shown in the Wintergarden, open to the public, was moved out of Rochester in August, according to the building's new owner Buckingham Properties; B&L spokesperson Kristy Guerra: given to a CEO in Switzerland as part of a business deal, 'It was sent to Galderma', 'part of the divestiture'; B&L moved its headquarters to New Jersey in 2013 after its purchase by Valeant.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
ART FEATURE: "Transitions-Rochester" — City Newspaper ↗
Rebecca Rafferty, 11 October 2011: the artist contemplates the Berlin Wall fragment on display in the Bausch & Lomb headquarters, in a work entitled 'Every Wall Falls Eventually'.
Press reportSource accessed 2026-09-17
Legacy Tower — Buckingham Properties ↗
The building owner's listing: Legacy Tower, 1 Bausch and Lomb Pl, Rochester, NY 14604, with its 11,000 sq ft glass-enclosed Wintergarden.
Institutional sourceSource accessed 2026-09-17
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 355
Source-reported segments: 1. This is not a separately verified count.
No photograph of this one has been published. If you have taken one, or know when it arrived or who gave it, we would like to hear. Contribute to this record