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The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza is a complex of several state buildings in downtown Albany, New York.
The Plaza consists of various marble and steel buildings, seated on a six-story marble platform along the Hudson River. The buildings comprising the Plaza include:
- the four Agency buildings (numbered "Agency 1" through "Agency 4")
- the Mayor Erastus Corning II Tower
- the Egg
- the Cultural Education Center (State Museum, Library, and Archives)
- the Justice Building
- the Legislative Office Building
- the Swan Street Building (sectioned into "Core 1" through "Core 4")
The Plaza also features a skating rink and fountains, an underground corridor connecting all of the buildings in the Plaza and the Capitol, and various sculptures and works of art. Glenn D. Lowry, Director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City has called the Plaza's collection of 1960s and 1970s American art "...the most important State collection of modern art in the country."
The scale of the buildings in the Plaza is impressive, and the complex is the most easily recognizable aspect of the Albany skyline. The Corning Tower is the tallest building in New York state outside of New York City; the Swan Street Building is over a quarter of a mile long and inspired by Pharaoh Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir-el-Bahri, Egypt.
It was the brainchild of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, in whose name the Plaza has since been dedicated. Until the rededication, the complex was known as the Albany South Mall. Wallace Harrison was the principal architect of the plaza.
It should be noted that it is cold and windy in the winter, and hot and shadeless in the summer.
History
The 98-acre complex was built between 1965 and 1978 for 1.7 billion dollars. Rockefeller was inspired to create the new government space in 1959 upon the visit of Princess Beatrix. The Corning Tower and Agency buildings were completed in 1973, and the Egg was completed in 1978.
About the Buildings
The buildings are laid around a row of three reflecting pools. On the west side are the four twenty-three-floor (310-foot) Agency towers. On the east side is the Egg (Meeting Center) and the 44-floor (589-foot) Corning Tower, which has an observation deck on the 42nd floor.
On the south end is the Cultural Education Center, set on a higher platform; and on the north end sits the New York State Capitol.
The Plaza itself is actually the largest building of all. Four of the floors are for parking, while the fifth floor contains a bus/taxicab depot, a post office, cafeterias, a convention center and meeting rooms, retailers, banks, and a visitor center.
Art at the Plaza
The plaza has a large number of modern art paintings and sculptures located at various locations. Most are works of the New York School, including Jackson Pollock, Robert Motherwell, and Alexander Calder.
Controversy
Not unexpectedly, the complex was a significant controversy around the time of its construction. It was criticized for displacement of the former landowners, the cost of its lavish architecture (the towers are covered in marble so that one cannot see the individual floors), its sheer size, and its period architecture. In The Shock of the New: Art and the Century of Change, Thames & Hudson, 1991 (ISBN 0500275823), Robert Hughes refers to the buildings as being in "The International Power Style of the Fifties", comparing the buildings to those built by Fascist governments.
Nevertheless, the buildings remain in high service to locals, state government, and tourists.
External links
"Empire State Plaza"