The Alfred E. Smith Building, known officially as the Alfred E. Smith State Office Building and sometimes called simply the Smith Building, is a structure located in downtown Albany, New York across the street from the New York State Capitol and One Commerce Plaza.
The building’s namesake, Alfred Emmanuel Smith, was a four-term governor of New York and the Democratic Party’s nomination for the 1928 presidential election. The Art Deco skyscraper has 34 stories and at 388 feet (118 m) is Albany’s second tallest structure (after the Erastus Corning Tower).
Completed in 1928, it houses offices of the New York State government. Built originally with an observation deck on the 31st floor, the 350-foot-high (110 m) open-air deck was closed in 1976 when the 589-foot-tall (180 m) 42nd floor enclosed Corning Tower Observation Deck was opened. An extensive renovation of the building began in 2002. This modernization, which cost at least $103 million, is now finished.
Good morning! 52 degrees and cloudy on this Tuesday. Last night was a remarkable 62 degrees after the rain before the cold front pushed through. Did I mention today is December 15th? Pretty outrageous weather. Going to be a windy day and with the sun expected later, the heavy rain from last night should be rapidly dried up from the pavement.
For a while last night I had no data service on my phone. I don’t know what the issue was but I sure missed having real time bus info on my phone after I stopped at the bus stop.
It poured on the way down to the library but I was able to catch a bus down there. The stop at the library is really nice. Later in the evening the rain stopped but it was wet and I was tired so I skipped my evening walk. So be it.
Continuing to work on tweaking maps and designing some new content for the blog. Also did some more cleaning last night.
Good evening. Currently 47 degrees and mild. This evening will be fairly cloudy but still not bad to sit outside with a jacket on. We are only looking for a low around 42 degrees tonight. Mild weather continues for the foreseeable future with 59 degrees and partly cloudy on Friday. Upper 50s for highs through the weekend then rain but continued warm for Monday.
I’m strongly thinking about heading to Southern Vermont this weekend. Not too far but next weekend I’ll be stuck in town for the Save the Pine Bush Hike. I’d like to do some hiking and camping. Maybe some plinking too. I hate driving NY 7 through Troy but I been a lot of other places lately and would prefer to hold off the next trip to the Adirondacks until after Christmas. I have to get a haircut Saturday morning and refill the propane, but other than that I could leave pretty early. I don’t need any food or supplies, well except for one thing that I can pick up at the store when I go this evening.
Good morning. A fairly warm morning at 47 degrees but also a bit rainy but at this point things are clearing out. We might even see some sun on this quite mild Thursday. Might even hit 50 degrees. Already some blue skies to the north.
I have a lot of things I should do this weekend but I still almost want to head out of town while the weather is still warm. We will see. That said, it looks like the mild December weather will be with us for a while. I wouldn’t mind some snow eventually for lean-to camping. I need to get a haircut and refill propane tank among other things like continuing to clean my apartment. I would also like to get mapping working again on my laptop.
Got to bed at a reasonable hour, so hopefully I’ll be more awake at work today. I should have gotten coffee yesterday because I was so tired. I should have just opened that god awful instant coffee that is multiple decades old on my desk. Going to be a another busy day in the office but I’m hopeful I will have a lot more energy.
Good evening. Currently 45 degrees and cloudy this evening. This evening will be fairly warm and cloudy, near constant temperatures. The wind appears to have died down a bit.
Stayed a bit late at work, catching the local bus home. According to the Bus Time the buses were running late but I didn’t notice the delay. It’s possible that the buses are just running 15 minutes late, essentially on time. I don’t know.
Tired tonight. I was up too late last night. Going to try to get a earlier start to bed tonight.
Good evening. Currently 33 degrees and partly cloudy as we get one day closer to Christmas. Tonight will be mostly cloudy, with a low around 28. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.
Bus driver made a wrong turn so we had to go around the block. But sometimes leaving later means less traffic. Tonight though traffic is slow. Oh, well I get home when I get home.
Good evening. Currently 41 degrees and clear. Tonight will be partly cloudy, with a low around 33. Northwest wind 7 to 11 mph, with gusts as high as 21 mph.
Traffic is moving slowly but surely on the old 787 heading out of the city. Creeping along. Eventually I’ll get home. It’s rush hour. I’m starting to think traffic has picked up a fair amount since the end of the recession.
Good evening. Currently 48 degrees at nearly 11 PM. The rain has stopped and by all means a nice evening but no stars are to be seen. Scattered showers, mainly before 1am. Cloudy, with a low around 38. Light and variable wind becoming west 5 to 10 mph after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 40%. New precipitation amounts of less than a tenth of an inch possible.