The W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus is an office park in western Albany, New York, United States that houses sixteen New York State Government office buildings. The land totals roughly and over 3 million square feet (280,000 m2) of office space, and about 7,000 state employees work there. The campus was built during the 1950s and 1960s in a suburban, car-oriented style bordered by an outer ring road that cuts the campus off from the surrounding neighborhoods. The campus is flanked by Washington Avenue to the north, Western Avenue to the south, University at Albany to the west, and New York State Route 85 to the east. With its own steam generation power plant for cooling and heating (Building 17) the campus is mostly self-sufficient.
History
The campus was planned in the 1950s by Governor W. Averell Harriman to offer more parking and easier access for state employees. Prior to this the land was part of the Albany Pine Bush with the Albany Municipal Golf Course to the west where the University at Albany is today. The first building (Building 1, Department of Civil Service) was built in 1956, and 2, 9, and 17 were completed by the early 1960s, but most of the buildings were built in the mid-late 1960s under Governor Nelson Rockefeller. In 1964 the Division Headquarters Building (Building 22) of the New York State Police was built in the campus, marking the first time that the administrative and headquarters support services were consolidated in the same building. Three years later the State Police Academy (Building 24) was built next door. The State Police Forensics Center (Building 30), was built in 1994. In 1987 less than on Brevator Street was given at no charge to the city of Albany for use of a new fire station, Engine 10. This increased coverage for the western part of the city, including the Harriman Campus and University at Albany.
Starting with Governor Hugh Carey in the 1970s, policy has been to relocate workers from the Harriman Campus and other suburban settings to the various downtowns of the Capital District; Albany, Schenectady and Troy. The plan continued under governors Mario Cuomo and George Pataki; Pataki signed into law in 1998 the $235 million Albany Plan that further sped up the process and included privatizing the campus after moving the majority of state workers to other locations. From 1995 to 2005 over 13,364 state workers were relocated around the Capital District, including moving the 1,400 New York State Department of Transportation workers from the Harriman Campus to a renovated 50 Wolf Road in Colonie (the former New York State Department of Environmental Conservation headquarters).
The Harriman Research and Technology Development Corporation (HRTDC) was established in 2004 as a subsidiary of the Empire State Development Corporation and has been tasked with the redevelopment of the campus. The plan was originally envisioned in 2003 as a bold move to completely eliminate the ring road, demolish the existing buildings, and construct a hotel, commercial, residential, and high tech office space all integrated with the surrounding neighborhoods. The Harriman Campus once included land north of Washington Avenue and south of Interstate 90. In 2006 Columbia Development purchased of surface-parking north of Washington Ave for $4.2 million to add to its growing Patroon Creek Corporate Center. Buildings 1 and 1a were slated to be demolished in 2006 as part of that Albany Plan, funded with the proceeds from the parking lot sale to Columbia Development. As of 2015, the buildings have been demolished.