Albany, the capital of New York.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Capitol:

 

 

 

Large area next to the Capitol, full of tall unpleasant buildings wasting large areas of space:

 

 

speaking of…

 

 

ok, back

considered dropping the exposure to like -4 on this next one, just so I wouldn't have to see it

 

I should have spent more time in the residential areas instead of near these vertical ironing boards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Manchester, NH

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

coffee cat approves

 

 

 

 

 

Looks incredible--thanks!

 

Albany is a gem.

What is that city skyline that you said "speaking of"?  Albany looks interesting, btw, thanks.

the ironing boards are a mandatory photo - pure dystopia.

 

but yeah the older albany stock is much more interesting.

 

good work here!

 

 

No Egg shot?! :) Love the Albany mall as far as something to experience and look at. The scale, completeness, and general good repair make it a guilty pleasure of mine in respect to sympathies relevant to this forum..

What is that city skyline that you said "speaking of"?  Albany looks interesting, btw, thanks.

 

It's Houston.

Two handsome, classic downtowns, well photographed. I prefer Albany's some, probably because the streetscape isn't littered with parked cars. I assume that's thanks to what look like very large outlying parking decks. I'll agree with Loretto that the mall is visually interesting in its own right; I just think that its juxtaposition with the downtown collection of traditional, classic government and commercial buildings is jarring. I haven't been to Albany, so I'm wondering if other traditional downtown buildings were sacrificed to create the mall?

 

 

I think the land that was cleared for Albany's Empire State Plaza was on the edge of downtown rather than in a place where large downtown buildings would have been displaced. Still, I know that thousands of residents were displaced and that more than 1,000 buildings were removed for the project, which was originally known as the South Mall. As I recall, part of the impetus for the project was to reestablish downtown Albany as the center of state government. Downtown's central role had been eroded by the development of an office park known as the State Campus. If I am not mistaken, Gov. Nelson Rockefeller stated that the South Mall would give Albany the grandeur of a European capital. Instead it gave it more of a Brasilia flair.

 

The story of Empire State Plaza is horrifying in some ways, and, while I don't at all deny what was lost to bring it about, I can't help myself in finding it striking or even beautiful at this point in time. Despite the imposition of the plaza, Albany is not one of the cities whose entire downtown was wiped out in the urban renewal area. Albany is very old by upstate NY and American standards. Its city charter dates to 1686.