[5][6] The plaza was the idea of Governor Nelson Rockefeller, who was inspired to create the new government complex after Queen Juliana of the Netherlands visited Albany for a celebration of the area's Dutch history.

[7] Rockefeller conceived the basic design of the complex with architect Wallace Harrison in flight aboard the governor's private plane.

The massive scale was designed to be appreciated from across the Hudson River, as the dominant feature of the Albany skyline.

At the time of the State's 1962 seizure, the largest ethnic group in the entire area was African American, at about 14% of the total population.

To the north lay Albany's rooming house district, centered on Jay, Lancaster, and Hudson streets between Eagle and S. Swan.

Holy Cross, a German national Catholic church founded in 1850, was at the corner of Hamilton and Philip streets.

Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a French national Catholic church, was at 109 Hamilton, between Grand and Fulton streets.

After the State demolished the church, its congregants decided to merge with Trinity Methodist on Lark and Lancaster Streets, rather than try to start up again in a new location.

St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church at 8 Lancaster Street was the heart of the Greek-American community, and was in the midst of a major expansion campaign when the state seized the area.

In 1957 it relocated from 79 Hamilton Street, within the area seized by the State in 1962, to the former Beth Emeth synagogue on S. Swan between Lancaster and Jay.

[15] Paying for the construction of the plaza was a major problem, since a bond issue for an Albany project would almost certainly have been disapproved by the statewide electorate.

During repayment, the state guaranteed the principal and interest payments in the form of rent for a plaza that was officially county property.

Control of the bond issues gave Corning and party boss Daniel P. O'Connell influence when dealing with the Republican governor.

[20] Though the plaza was dedicated on November 21, 1973,[21] it finally began full operation in 1976 at a total cost exceeding $1.7 billion.

The Cuomo administration said the project should save the state $2.7 million in annual energy costs and cut down on greenhouse emissions.

[24] The buildings are placed on a 6-story stone-clad Main Platform, supported by more than 25,000 steel pilings driven an average of 70 feet (21 m) into soft glacial clay deposits underlying the site.

[24] The exterior columns and narrow windows of the buildings resemble the style of the World Trade Center towers in New York City, which were completed around the same time.

The placement of starkly abstract geometric building forms on a monolithic plaza is said to represent Rockefeller's concept of architecture as similar to sculpture.

[25] The scale of the buildings in the plaza is imposing, and the complex is the most easily recognizable aspect of the Albany skyline.

[24] The Swan Street Building is more than a quarter of a mile long (400 meters), and modeled partly on Pharaoh Hatshepsut's Temple at Deir el-Bahri, Egypt.

On the east side is the Egg (Meeting Center) and the 44-floor (589-foot (180 m)) Erastus Corning Tower, which has an observation deck on the 42nd floor.

The current South Mall Arterial ends abruptly in a loop at Swan Street, with both eastbound and westbound lanes using the two outer portals of the four-portal tunnel leading under the plaza.

[34] The Concourse is Albany's "Underground City" with food courts, a former McDonald's restaurant, banks, a post office, a CDTA bus station, a visitor's center, and several retailers.

The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Art Collection is located throughout the complex, within the underground Concourse, buildings, and outdoor areas.

The commission included Wallace K. Harrison; Robert M. Doty; René d'Harnoncourt; Seymour H. Knox, II; and (after 1968) Dorothy Miller.

Significantly, Rockefeller preferred modern art with no explicit social or political content: "I like strong, simple painting without a message".

The construction of the plaza occurred during the decline of Albany's downtown shopping district, and the massive displacement of population allegedly hastened the process.

Numerous restaurants, specialty shops, two major department stores, and downtown's last movie theater had shuttered by the end of construction.