[lio45]

I'm a pretty hardcore preservationist, and would never, ever be in favor of razing a neighborhood if such a thing was proposed today, BUT I have to say that the Plaza (including Egg, Library) has a certain charm. Very 1960s Americana...

Anything that's super typical of its era is architecturally worthy, IMO.

I'm familiar enough with Albany to be able to say that there are so many acres of the same types of rowhouses (of a varied, but still limited, number of architectural styles, so there are still many, many, many of each still standing) that the loss of a small number of blocks for the Plaza wasn't really such a catastrophe. The city has amazing bones, and I would even go as far as to say it could afford to trade a few typical blocks for something truly unique. Feels weird to say that, but it's still true. Especially considering that had the Plaza not been built, the pressure for state govt downtown office space would have definitely severely dented the supply of rowhouses in the core one way or another during the 1960s/1970s/1980s.