Ahead of you spreads a complex of state government buildings known as the Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza, or simply the Empire State Plaza — sometimes still called the South Mall or Albany Mall. This is a complex of several state government buildings in downtown Albany, New York. The plaza was built between 1965 and 1976 at an estimated total cost of $2 billion.
It houses several departments of the New York State administration and is integrated with the New York State Capitol, completed in 1899, which houses the state legislature. Among the offices at the plaza are the Department of Health and the Biggs Laboratory of the Wadsworth Center. Scattered through the site you will find the Empire State Art Collection, a major public collection of 1960s and 1970s monumental abstract artworks on permanent display.
The New York State Office of General Services maintains the plaza, and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Empire State Plaza Performing Arts Center Corporation, created in 1979, manages the performing arts facility here. The plaza was the idea of Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Government offices, the Empire State Art Collection, the Capitol of 1899, and the performing arts center all share this one stretch of Rockefeller's plaza.