When we moved to Albany, NY --1976, from the midwest for me, and Lillian in 1980 from Manhattan, the deed was done. The Empire State Plaza, then governor and billionaire Nelson Rockefeller's colossal monument to himself, was fait accompli. Demolition of a huge swath of the city's downtown began in 1962 and construction was complete in 1976. Based on back of the napkin concepts sketched by Nelson Rockefeller, with Wallace Harrison, Rockefeller family personal favorite, as architect of record, the office complex now houses over 11,000 government workers along with 92 art works assembled by Rockefeller and purchased with public funds. Glenn Lowry, director of the Museum of Modern Art calls the plaza's art works "the most important State collection of modern art in the country.".In his 1980 book The Shock of the New, the late art critic Robert Hughes, wrote about the Empire State Plaza, “This place makes Albert Speer’s projects seem delicate.”
Reviewing a recent biography of Nelson Rockefeller, Timothy Noah writes, "What Hughes loathed about it — an impersonal gigantism that fairly shouted, “Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair” — was exactly what Rockefeller (whose devotion to modern art and architecture rivaled his passion for politics) loved. But, unlike Ozymandias, Rockefeller never got to be pharaoh."
Maybe not, but he certainly wielded an emperor's sceptre with royal abandon, stabbing deep into the heart of "the longest continuously chartered city in the United States" dating to 1614. In the BBC documentary of The Shock of the New, Hughes uses such terms as Totalitarian Modernism; jackboots - one in the myth of ancient Rome, the other in a vision of a technocratic future; the architecture of democracy; history without the trim; a solemn parody; high-minded kitsch; and metaphors, running slightly out of control."
Those metaphors have left a permanent mark on Albany's downtown, where Lillian and I lived for over 30 years. It is a scar from which the city is not likely to recover. Less for what was built by Rockefeller and Harrison, but for what was lost in the process. A lively, vibrant historic city center filled with people, day and night, and a waterfront that treated the Hudson River as resource and center of activity. Downtown was pretty much a ghost-town at night when we moved in, and remained so until we left. It will take more than one pedestrian footbridge to reclaim any part of that legacy.
Historic photos: Albany's Riverfront
Thursday, November 19, 2015
Albany Times Union newspaper
Thanks, to Karen Greendale for link to the historic photographs