Hardhats and the Microskirt

Elke Sommer, the German actress who played opposite Paul Newman, Peter Sellers, and James Garner in popular 1960s films, donned a microskirt and a hardhat in August, 1970, to tour the South Mall construction site.  As the “Teutonic temptress” made her way among the 2,000 ironworkers, operating engineers, cement pourers, and other construction workers, she…

A “Beautiful, Brilliant, Efficient, and Electrifying” Capital

The South Mall Cornerstone Ceremony, June 21, 1965, commemorated the end of demolitions that cleared 98 acres in Albany and the beginning of construction of the massive State office complex, officially known as the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza. On the northwest edge of the South Mall take area, speakers and VIPs sat…

The Mystery of the Missing Model

More than a year after appropriating 98.5 acres—and 9 months after demolitions began—the State of New York finally unveiled two scale models embodying plans for a futuristic office complex in a revitalized Albany. Taking center stage at the April 23, 1963 ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, Governor Nelson Rockefeller declared that the State’s plan would…

The First—and Second—South Mall Demolition

On the morning of July 11, 1962—after months of delay due to the City’s lawsuit—the State of New York began demolishing South Mall properties posthaste. The first demolition was a press event. To the applause of several hundred onlookers—including neighborhood residents, like Mrs. Scanese (pictured above)—Gov. Nelson Rockefeller operated the controls of a 60-ton crane….