City Hall and Albany Capitol Building

City Hall

Today we visited Albany which is full of buildings with wonderful architectures. We admired many of these buildings while Professor Musial gave us a brief summary of their history. The building that impressed me the most was the City Hall. The picture above shows a side view of the building. As the picture shows, the building has a large number of windows in the upper floor. The arches in the windows give the building a roman look. In addition, the building is made of rocks which contributes to a rough look. The big tower which is 202 feet tall has carillon which are bells that can be heard miles away.

Being so impressed by the architecture of the City Hall, I decided to do a little research about it. This magnificent building was designed by Henry Hobson who was a really famous architect back in the days. The construction of the building culminated in 1883. However, the carillon was not partially built until 1926 by William Gorham Rice’s fundraiser. Rice suggested the carillon as a monument to the soldiers who died in World War I.  Thanks to William Rice and other 25,000 citizens, the money to build the carillon was obtained. By 1927, a year later, the carillon was completely built. The building does not only have a beautiful architecture but it also represents the affection that regular citizens have for those who served the country. Every time that the carillon are played, people who know the story behind carillon will remember those that died in World War I and maybe any other war.

Label on City Hall's Wall

This carillon is one of the few owned by the government. It contains 49 bells which each creates a unique sound. The carillon is controlled by a carillonneur who uses a handle wooden keyboard. This Keyboard controls each bells and so the carilloneur has the control of each bell. It is amazing to know that artifacts like this one are still in use. Today City Hall is place for government offices. This beautiful building was claimed to be one of the most beautiful in the U.S.

Capitol Building 

Ceilings 

 The Albany Capitol Building also possess an amazing architecture.  It has been pointed as one of the biggest and most beautiful senate buildings in the country. The building was not designed by one architect. Instead, the design of the building passed along different architects who created their own design. As a result, the inside of the building has completely different designs which I think gives the place the amazing look. Since the building was designed by different architects in different periods of time, one can find a whole variety of architecture in the building. For instance, I noticed that the design of the ceiling was different in almost every floor.  Maybe if the building was built by only one architect, the ceilings would have been almost the same or completely the same. However in every floor the ceiling as well as the floor has a different design.

Elevator

The door of the elevator was so impressing that every time it opened I felt I was going to go to a paradise.  As the picture above shows, the door of the elevator is arched which I related with Romans and how they were a powerful and wealthy empire in Europe. In the same way, the arches of the elevator’s doors as well as the arches in the windows and doors give the Albany capitol building a powerful and wealthy look. This powerful and wealthy look represented in the architecture of this building also represents the state of New York which is often referred to as the Empire State.