Tour of Downtown Albany

View of downtown Albany

Albany City Hall

Today we toured and explored the architectural styles of the buildings in downtown Albany. We learned about the different architectural styles used to build various buildings throughout the centuries. We first came across the Court of Appeals of New York. It had a neo-classic architectural style and its building dates back to 1842. It was a copy of the initial Greek democracy in Athens, which I found pretty interesting. And I also did not know that the reason why they used white marble is because it reflects light, so it's almost a representation of justice. The first things that struck out to me when I see this building is the columns, they awfully remind me a lot of Greece. Then we learned about the Albany City Hall building which was built in 1883. The building was completely different, it had a dark,
heavier architectural style to it. It also had fancy cut stonework other than the Court of Appeals. It was a mixture of rustic and fine carving, and to me at first it seemed odd that his building was built this way because churches are usually built in this architectural manner. Even when I first saw the building I thought it was a kind of church. The artwork and the style of this building is meant to convey stability; the building has a kind of 'heavier' feel to it than the Court of Appeals maybe because that building was lighter and the City Hall Building felt like it was built on bricks.

Court of Appeals

Then we learned about this building that was was the Delaware Hudson Railroad Headquarters. The style was a copy of a famous Belgian building. I noticed how beautiful and intricate the details were in this building and big it was. The building had a Medieval era, gothic style look and it was built in 1914. This building was actually my favourite. Then we came across a white Deco building that was a James T. Foley United States Courthouse. It had a governmental, facist style to it, with Egyptian mural work on top of the building. I really liked this part of the building because it was nice seeing foreign cultural artwork appropriated into a style for the building. And it was interesting comparing how architectural styles completely changed  centuries ago to modern building. Nowadays, you usually seeing bland, tall buildings or skyscrapers that have no distinct architectural influence to it.
After that, we learned more about the State Capitol building and we visited the place, which was really beautiful. Thomas Fuller designed the building, but not the whole thing! He only designed the basement which took him 4 years and $4 million dollars. I found it amazing how this building is the most expensive capitol building in the nation and it is still not finished! I personally do not think it's necessary to build anything more to this building, I think it's a waste of time and money. All those funds can be used on more important things people need instead of just trying to make a capitol building look nice just to impress. I just simply don't see the point of importance of spending anymore more money to build new things to this building.

Hudson Railroad Headquarters

The outside architectural style of the state capitol had romanesque arches and french-inspired triangular towers. It was a mash of three different architectural styles since three workers and carvers from Italy built it. The orange terracotta tiles are made of slate and the stones are at least 16 feet thick to support the building.
Then we went on a tour inside the state capitol. The place was huge and absolutely beautiful. The staircases were made made of sandstone, which is why it was so soft and some people, including, couldn't stop touching it! One of the rooms we first went into was the War Room. It featured soldiers from New York state who fought and died in wars. It took almost 9 years to completely finish the room! I also liked how the shape of the ceiling created the illusion of a dome, I thought that was pretty interesting. Then we went to the Hall of Governors were paintings of every New York state governor was featured. Most of the portraits were donated to the collection by families. Then we went to the assembly chamber where bills were passed, I thought this was the coolest room in the building. I always wanted to visit this room, well because, I love politics so much. I wish I could have stayed and watched the whole thing! Then we went to the senate chamber

Albany State Capitol

where they pass bills into laws. And they had what was called "whispering fireplaces" where people could go to have private conversations so their voices wouldn't echo throughout the room. The million dollar staircase was another interesting part of the tour we learned about. It was so soft I couldn't stop touching it. I surprised the tour guide didn't tell us about a man who was working on the first floor who died in a fire and supposedly his ghost haunts the place (and so do the little demon faces on the walls). After touring the state capitol, we saw the state education building. It was built in 1912 in neo-classic columns and I thought it was interesting how this building was the first in the country to be dedicated to education administration. It took 4 million dollars to construct the Corinthian columns and today it stands as the only building with the most columns!
After our tour around downtown Albany, we had a nice barbecue dinner with a Russell Sage alumina, Ronnie. I enjoyed the food, it was really good. And during our talk in the house, I liked hearing about how different Russell Sage was back in the 1960's to now. It gave me a new perspective and outlook about the college and how much has changed here. Afterwards, it was getting really late and I was tired and just wanted to get home. It was a long day!

weird egg-shaped looking building