Empire State Plaza

The Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza is a unique architectural masterpiece which houses 11,000 New York employees in a complex of ten buildings. The Plaza offers a world-class modern art collection, New York State’s Museum, Library and Archives, a distinctive performing arts center, convention center and more. It serves as a monument to the diversity and significance of New York, and also as a testament to Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, whose determination and vision brought about its creation.

http://www.ogs.ny.gov/esp/

Bird Hike

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Neil Rielly told me what bird this was during the hike, but so quickly I forgot.

Taken on Saturday September 21, 2019 at Empire State Plaza.

Energy and the Empire Plaza

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The Empire Plaza and connected buildings (Alfred E Smith and Capitol) use 111 gigawatt hours of power a year (electricity only, doesn’t include fossil heating or cooling).

To build a solar farm to power the Empire Plaza it would require demolishing 320 acres of buildings in the city of Albany, which is three and third more buildings then had to demolished to build the Empire Plaza itself – figuring 2.8 acres of land needed within the city for every gigawatt hour per year of electricity generated.

That’s roughly the area of the South Mall Arterial to Interstate 787 to the FBI Building to an imaginary line connecting to Eagle Street. 100 percent renewable sounds like a good idea, but it has an enormous environmental impact.

After the rain

At least that’s what my back of the envelope calculations show.