Magnificent.

The colonnade. Click the image to see the map.

Boasting one of the longest and tallest colonnades of any building, the 1912 Beaux Arts style New York State Education Building in downtown Albany is breathtaking in both its beauty and size. It is also home to one of the largest continuing frauds in American government, as this Wikipedia quote attests:

Fraud on a New York scale – a $30 billion annual theft.

My son and I visited en route to Union College on a rainy Sunday and were lucky to be given a detailed history of the building and the vast ‘The Genius of America’ painting by the receptionist, right down to the placement of Juno and Minerva!

Articulate and well spoken, our ‘tour guide’.

Adolphe Yvon’s canvas hangs in the building and is suitably large at 30 x 18 feet. These sort of allegorical paintings are no longer in favor, but our guide gave us a detailed and historically involving explanation. America would do well to return to adulation of its greatness when half the population thinks it’s no problem to extort foreign governments to further your corrupt political goals.

iPhone 11 Pro snaps.