#Van ostrande-radliff house

[fuckinuhhh]

Take a Walk 09/22/24 - Albany, NY Special Edition

Just a note to the 3 day-one fans/followers of my take a walk commentary series, I have a few posts to catch up on that are dated and slated to be put together as soon as I find the time. But I just wanted to get this special edition out as soon as I could because its fresh and I have the motivation to and this one is short. (And because this is my blog, and I make the rules, and were doing this one first!!)

While I was visiting my friends in Albany, a place I called home for a number of years, I had some time to kill so my old friend and I decided to take a long walk and shoot some photos. :)

First off we have the Hinckel Brewery building originally built as just the right-most building in 1855, with additions made in subsequent years as the business began to grow to be one of the biggest beer distributors in the Northeast even rivaling Anheuser-Busch and Samuel Adams during the early 1900's.

The original architect is unknown, but to the best of my understanding many of the building's interiors as well as the surrounding building complex have been modernized and incorporated into the @HudsonPark apartment scheme. I wasn't able to find a lot of info on the apartments that exist therein within the apartment complex, and they don't exactly have rave reviews on sites like google and apartments.com.

When we walked into the small inner concrete courtyard underneath the old docking bay in the office building, the vibe was very vacant aside from being locked and then this strange noise I caught of one of the seemingly-annoyed tenants who wasn't happy we were all up in their business. (either that or it was a ghost, give the sound a listen in the last 5 seconds of this video and let me know lol).

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Then we walked past some of my favorites, that I neglected to get pictures of -_- bc I didn't think I would be making this post, BUT that I'll def be able to get pictures of from my archives/google. I'll throw together a short run through of those real quick and then get to the main event.

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The Van Ostrande-Radliff House at 48 Hudson Ave, a must see (even if you cant see much) in Albany. This is the oldest standing building in the city, originally built in 1728. Preservation efforts are ongoing to restore it to its former charm, but it remains covered for the time being so as to not fall into further disrepair. I recommend checking out the sick pictures that Historic Albany Foundation has on their website of the current interior.

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Down the street is the SUNY Headquarters Building, an old railroad building that served the state capitol under the Delaware & Hudson Railroad Co. Architect Marcus T. Reynolds designed this one, it was originally built as six separate buildings from 1915 on and connected to form one continuous structure, this imposingly beautiful Flemish Gothic building is one of my personal favorites in downtown Albany.

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Turning around we see this beautifully ornate neo-classical building at the corner of State St. & Broadway. Originally built as the Albany Trust Company building in 1902, also by architect Marcus T. Reynolds! This building has such a striking facade and the renaissance revival dome is truly an architectural masterpiece (if not bordering on a little gaudy). I was so lucky to find out they had just given it a fresh spruced up paint job when I walked by it! Today it operates as the SUNY Research Foundation building.

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Then juuuust up the street 2 buildings away is BY FAR my favorite little guy in the city (I would treat her so right, please god give me a chance).

This is 63 State St. Being built originally by one of my favorite architects, Russell Sturgis in 1876 for the Mechanics & Farmers Bank. For such a small sliver of a property footprint this building just does so much right with its balance of form and ornament. The turret on the corner is stunningly delicate, as well as the bright red brick to complement the light sandy stone. Not to mention that beautifully ornate third floor circle window. This building changed hands a couple times throughout the centuries but retains the old vault door in the basement as well as the brass fixtures and marble floorings inside that give it quite the stately presence upon entering.

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How could I not include the most imposingly large, ornate, stately, balanced (every other adjective I've ever used on this blog...) building in Albany, the state capitol building!? Main architect: Henry Hobson Richardson, along with Leopold Eidlitz, Thomas Fuller, and Isaac G. Perry. Finished in 1899 after 32 years!

I'm going to keep this very brief because we only stopped here briefly on our walk and this building deserves it's own deep dive post at some point anyway. Plus it isn't even the aforementioned "Main Event" of our walk. But the detail in the scrolling on the columns here is absolutely insane. My friend and I were discussing it's architectural style/influences and we weren't completely convinced it falls into any one, Italianate/Neoclassical/Victorian/Georgian/Flemish/Gothic/Spanish influences... the confluence of styles in this design is absolutely masterful. As well as whether one would consider the columns corinthian or not, maybe composite? But just take a look at these bad boys, I would sit and take a full semester's course just on the symbolism sprinkled in and throughout this structure.

The scrolling is unique on EVERY column and sprinkled with tons of historical imagery and symbolism but they all have the same visual weight and if you weren't paying attention you'd never notice.

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If you think nothing could compete with the capital building's insanely intricate detail look across the street for it's closest competitor, The State Education Department building and Chancellor Hall at 89 Washington Ave. I think I remember thinking for a long time this was my favorite Albany building for years before discovering the charming old gothic bank building on lower State St.

Spanning a whole city block (a long one) is this building's imposing Greek-revival corinthian colonnade with 36 massive columns along it! Another scale-defying building joining the capitol building at you-have-to-see-it-in-person scale, the columns on this bad boy are comparable to the width of a redwood tree (see the picture of my legs as I lay down between them to get shots of the ceiling).

Originally Built in 1911 by architect Henry Hornbostel, this building has retained it's integrity and intention by functioning as the base of operations for the NY state education system since its completion. Its structure and facade, including the intricate brass lighting fixtures and the beautiful tiling along its exterior, has been kept in immaculate condition and is incredible to look at in person. This is another architectural feat with such minute detailing that I could sit there with an expert for probably weeks just in awe of it's symbols and attention to detail. I sat there for about 20 minutes when we visited it just looking at it and taking its beauty in. This is the type of building that just transports you somewhere else when you really take it in, it could've easily been cherry picked from the acropolis and plopped in upstate New York and you wouldn't question it thats how beautifully true to form it feels in person.

I didn't know I would be making this post in the moment while taking the walk so I don't have a dishonorable mention, but if you've ever been to Albany, NY you know there are far too many of those to ever pick from so I'm going to give myself a pass this time.