[3] On all the other sides of the block the surrounding neighborhood is densely developed and urban, with primarily government, institutional and commercial buildings.

It is topped with a red tiled cross-gabled roof, hipped on the east-west axis, with a nested gabled projection on either end.

On the north side of the cross-gable tall chimneys rise on either side of the main gable; a third, shorter chimney rises from the roofline south of the cross-gable[8] On the west (front) elevation, narrowing steps with wrought iron decorative handrails lead up to the main entrance, triply-recessed triple stone rounded archways, with the central one slightly larger.

Each entrance has a double wooden door, with brass trimmings, including kick plate, and glass window with iron grille.

At the springline is a piece of carved wood; the one on the central entrance is more ornate, just below it the words "City Hall" are set in brass letters on the entablature.

Above each is a semicircular glass transom with ornate iron radial muntins, divided at the center by a fluted wooden panel.

At street level below the easternmost of these four is a side entrance to the building, wooden double doors with barred upper windows and a lower panel.

[10] The east (rear) facade, facing Corning Park, has exclusively double-hung one-over-one sash on the ground floor, with the same treatment but covered with protective metal screening, beginning with a pair at the corner next to the tower.

[9] Adjacent to the tower on the ground floor of the south facade are two screen-protected double windows similar to those on the opposite side except for the mullions being recessed as well.

The easternmost bay is taken, only at ground level, with a recessed entryway featuring double wooden paneled doors with barred upper windows identical to those on the opposite side entrance.

Above them are three cross-windows, their mullions more decorative engaged round smooth columns with ornate capitals, matched by smaller ones between the upper lights.

The east gable facade has on the lower story two sets of recessed double-hung sash flanked on either side by narrower versions, all three topped by transoms without any stone separator, rising from the upper of two stringcourses.

Above them, in the apex, are two small recessed double-hung sash rising from a brownstone beltcourse, with the uppermost adjacent stones widening like a capital but flat and plain on the front.

On its west side is a small porch, with a stone-shingled peaked roof supported by an octagonal smooth stone column with decorative capital.

[9] The main entrances open into a lobby with a polished stone floor on which a decorative diamond pattern surrounds the city seal.

Flat curved arches supported by engaged pillars and topped with molding rise up on three sides to create a triforium.

Another metal railing, with intermittent decorative patterns, runs around the fourth floor, topped by gentle, wide arches.

They rise to a plain frieze topped by a decorative wooden cornice at the height of the separation between the upper and lower lights in the loggia windows.

Decorative molding sets off a coffered ceiling from which a central chandelier is augmented by two fixtures hanging on chains over the desk at west and upward-pointing spotlights on the walls.

Evidence from the journals of Wouter van Twiller, Director of New Netherland from 1633 to 1638,[16] suggests that at least some type of punitory building was built on the site during his term.

George Howell and Jonathan Tenney, in their book Bi-centennial History of Albany, cite reports from 1646 describing the building as a substantial (at least for its time) three-story structure, with the lower floor built of stone and used as a jail.

[15] Both historians agree that it stood at the northeast corner of today's Hudson Avenue and Broadway, the current site of the SUNY System Administration Building.

[19] A new city hall was probably built on the site around 1740;[15] historians at the New York State Museum (NYSM) put its completion date as the following year.

[20] A month prior to the meeting, Franklin published his Join, or Die political cartoon, a graphical representation of the plan.

[26] In order to move city and county government out of the state capitol, in 1832 the city bought a plot of land to build on facing the public square opposite the capitol, on Eagle Street at the eastern end of Lion Street (later renamed Washington Avenue) from St. Peter's Church for $10,295.95 (equivalent to $346,000 in 2023[27]).

A full-length statue of Alexander Hamilton by Robert Ball Hughes stood in the center of the upper hall, between the Court room and the Common Council Chamber.

On one side of this hall was a bas-relief of DeWitt Clinton, with a view of a primitive Erie Canal boat in the distance, and on the opposite wall was a similar figure of Sir Walter Scott.

Architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock described city hall as "one of Richardson's most Romanesque designs" and the building's NRHP nomination adds that its "banded arches, rhythmic fenestration, bold expression of materials and corner placement of the tower are characteristic features of Richardson's work often to be repeated by his followers.

[29] The entranceway is a simple triple-arch loggia; other design elements on the front façade are limited to its windows and a quadruple-arch balcony off the Common Council chamber.

[29] Six decades later Mayor Thomas Whalen III had it restored, replacing 30 bells, removing the doubles, and adding two notes to its repertoire.