This is a great documentary. It showed the good, the bad and the ugly of a project this magnitude can bring to a community.. My father worked on the mall for many years.
Great little film, hinky sound design aside. I was there as a toddler during the first fireworks at the plaza in 78. My dad worked in the plaza and I spent many summers playing there. I know it gets a lot of criticism, but I think the plaza is awe-inspiring and was a wonderful place to run around as a child and hang out as a proto-filmmaker as a teen. The concourse, the art, the museum, the plaza, the Capitol ... just astounding. There was this amazing "lincoln log" type structure that kids climbed up. It was also a place where kids of different races and socioeconomic status played together, until we got chased away by cops.
Based on the credit at the end, I'm going to surmise that this was the work of Helen C. Welsh, who died in 2009 at the age of 102. From her obit: "Miss Welsh was a graduate of Cathedral Academy, College of St. Rose and Columbia University's School of Library Science. She was the director of libraries in the Seaford Public Schools for over 10 years, retiring in 1976. Miss Welsh was a school librarian for many years and taught library science at NYS College for Teachers for 18 years. Miss Welsh also served as both secretary to The Amateur Film Society of America, as well as a contributor of many of her own films as an award-winning cinematographer. She was a longtime communicant of St. Teresa of Avila Church."
I first visited Albany from RI as a teen-ager in the 70's. The mall looked so barren. I revisited and fell in love with the row-houses a few years ago. It is a shame that so much of the old architecture destroyed and so many people, businesses had to be displaced at the whim of one man who was so embarrased. So goes the tail wagging the dog democracy. Unite and fight to preserve.
I can remember riding in the car with my mother, dropping my father off for work at the south mall and picking him up at the end of the day. It was a short trip from Odell St, but times were great in America. I wish we could all go back to those days.
Fabulous mid century architecture, a lot like the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia that was built around the same time. Large public plazas and at the time it was considered futuristic architecture.
It still looks that way. Like a city of the future from the past. Worst thing to happen to Albany, this little video is depressing. What in the world is ironic about the old houses that were saved? Delusional to think this project was a success. Destroyed a neighborhood, destroyed beautiful old architecture to replace it with ugly modern ones that will never look good. And combined with 787 and what was supposed to be the connector to 90 under the tunnel, it cut the city off from the river.
At 50 y/o, I'm too young to get teary for "the neighborhood that disappeared." (Let that sink in: you have to be over 50, at a minimum, to be upset at its loss! In another 20 years, there may be nobody alive who still mourns it.) Personally, I love the Plaza. We're a capital city, an important city, so we should look like one. Pre-ESP, we didn't, and now we do. Maybe Rocky was right; we sure look better now than the dirty pigtown we were.
Why do you love the plaza? How often do you actually use it for anything? It's like an airport except no one is there and it doesn't serve any business need, no planes to take you anywhere. It's ugly. It cuts the city off from itself and kills any sense of flow walking through it. What good has the plaza done?
Many people have come to The Plaza for concerts held every single year to go to museums holiday spectacular fireworks, and other events. The shows you don't know nothing about Albany
This is a great documentary. It showed the good, the bad and the ugly of a project this magnitude can bring to a community.. My father worked on the mall for many years.
There's only bad and ugly.
Great little film, hinky sound design aside. I was there as a toddler during the first fireworks at the plaza in 78. My dad worked in the plaza and I spent many summers playing there. I know it gets a lot of criticism, but I think the plaza is awe-inspiring and was a wonderful place to run around as a child and hang out as a proto-filmmaker as a teen. The concourse, the art, the museum, the plaza, the Capitol ... just astounding. There was this amazing "lincoln log" type structure that kids climbed up. It was also a place where kids of different races and socioeconomic status played together, until we got chased away by cops.
Working in the Capitol now in 2014, it is Just amazing to see where Plaza has originated from, mind blowing!
Based on the credit at the end, I'm going to surmise that this was the work of Helen C. Welsh, who died in 2009 at the age of 102. From her obit: "Miss Welsh was a graduate of Cathedral Academy, College of St. Rose and Columbia University's School of Library Science. She was the director of libraries in the Seaford Public Schools for over 10 years, retiring in 1976. Miss Welsh was a school librarian for many years and taught library science at NYS College for Teachers for 18 years. Miss Welsh also served as both secretary to The Amateur Film Society of America, as well as a contributor of many of her own films as an award-winning cinematographer. She was a longtime communicant of St. Teresa of Avila Church."
I remember when they blew up the Dunn Memorial bridge. I was a kid living in East Schodack and you could hear it from beyond that.
I first visited Albany from RI as a teen-ager in the 70's. The mall looked so barren. I revisited and fell in love with the row-houses a few years ago. It is a shame that so much of the old architecture destroyed and so many people, businesses had to be displaced at the whim of one man who was so embarrased. So goes the tail wagging the dog democracy. Unite and fight to preserve.
Say, some of us who are Albany history buffs are DYING to know where you got this and any information you may have about it.
I can remember riding in the car with my mother, dropping my father off for work at the south mall and picking him up at the end of the day. It was a short trip from Odell St, but times were great in America. I wish we could all go back to those days.
its funny to think that no one ever visits the Plaza frequently and sit down inside the watered areas as seen in 14:42
Interesting. As a kid I went to the 4th of July stuff there and I worked as an intern in the education building.
Fabulous mid century architecture, a lot like the Brazilian capital city of Brasilia that was built around the same time. Large public plazas and at the time it was considered futuristic architecture.
It still looks that way. Like a city of the future from the past.
Worst thing to happen to Albany, this little video is depressing. What in the world is ironic about the old houses that were saved?
Delusional to think this project was a success. Destroyed a neighborhood, destroyed beautiful old architecture to replace it with ugly modern ones that will never look good. And combined with 787 and what was supposed to be the connector to 90 under the tunnel, it cut the city off from the river.
Up lease post source of this. It contains some very important footage.
Corning, an old Albany crook, found an accomplice in Rockhead and made a ton of cash.
"The most electrifying capital in the worrrrrrlllld........."
HAHAHAHAHA
Google indicates this appears to be a film by amateur filmmaker and school librarian Helen C. Welsh.
At 50 y/o, I'm too young to get teary for "the neighborhood that disappeared." (Let that sink in: you have to be over 50, at a minimum, to be upset at its loss! In another 20 years, there may be nobody alive who still mourns it.) Personally, I love the Plaza. We're a capital city, an important city, so we should look like one. Pre-ESP, we didn't, and now we do. Maybe Rocky was right; we sure look better now than the dirty pigtown we were.
Why do you love the plaza? How often do you actually use it for anything? It's like an airport except no one is there and it doesn't serve any business need, no planes to take you anywhere. It's ugly. It cuts the city off from itself and kills any sense of flow walking through it.
What good has the plaza done?
Anyone watching this film is watching the killing of the city of Albany.
The worst thing that ever happened to Albany
what a waste, no one even uses the plaza
Many people have come to The Plaza for concerts held every single year to go to museums holiday spectacular fireworks, and other events. The shows you don't know nothing about Albany
lol what a stupid comment.
@@scttymc1967 who? How?
Theres fireworks there, there's some concerts in the summer. It's virtually always empty.