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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 (ESP) 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 (1) the redevelopment of the city’s CBD, (2) images of a fully functioning state apparatus, and (3) the desire to centralize most state agencies within a specific place.
