A glimpse of "The Egg"—the egg-shaped performing arts center at the Empire State Plaza—as seen from State Street.

The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza is a complex of several state buildings in downtown Albany, New York. Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File links File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A glimpse of The Egg as seen from State Street. ... Motto: Nickname: Map Political Statistics Founded 1614 Incorporated 1686 Albany County Mayor Gerald D. Jennings Geographic Statistics Area  - Total  - Land  - Water 56. ...

The Plaza consists of various marble and steel buildings, seated on a five-story marble platform along the Hudson River. The buildings comprising the Plaza include: View of the Hudson in the 1880s showing Jersey City The Hudson River, called Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk in Mahican, is a river running mainly through New York State but partly forming the boundary between the states of New York and New Jersey. ...

• 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 Department of Motor Vehicles

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 1960's and 1970's American art "...the most important State collection of modern art in the country." Erastus Corning II was a mayor of Albany, New York. ... View across garden, in new MoMA building by Yoshio Taniguchi (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. ... Modern art is a general term, used for most of the artistic production from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s. ...

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 DMV Building is over a quarter of a mile long and inspired by Pharaoh Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir-el-Bahri, Egypt. An indurated limestone sculpture of Hatshepsut in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ...

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. Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller (July 8, 1908 – January 26, 1979), an American politician, was Governor of New York from 1959 to 1973 and the 41st Vice President of the United States of America from December 19, 1974 to January 20, 1977. ... Wallace K. Harrison is a mid-twentieth-century architect. ...

It should be noted that it is; god-awful ugly, unpleasantly cold and windy in the winter, and hot and shadeless in the summer.

The Making of Empire State Plaza