Abstract

Governmental complexes vary in their urbanistic conceptions. Many exhibit grandiose visions intended to create strong feelings in the minds and hearts of those who visit and work within their inner-bowels. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the conception, design, planning, construction and long-term plausibility of the Empire State Plaza in Albany, New York. It is hypothesized that the ESP represents the radicalization of a vision, the materialization of a governmental utopia, and the memorialization of a skyline not timely appropriated by Albanians and New Yorkers. ESP’s long-term plausibility is questioned from its place-making characteristics, completeness and extent of the impacts of its redevelopment, and tangible results from urbanity and humane perspectives. It is argued that ESP’s politico-architectonic gestures are individual statements as much as collective appropriations of immaterial values connected to the redevelopment of the city’s CBD, images of a fully functioning state apparatus, and the desire to centralize most state agencies within a specific place.