This field-oriented seminar attempts to understand comparatively the three-century evolution of the built environment of the three cities comprising New York;s Capitol District: namely, Albany (founded 1624), Schenectady (founded 1684), and Troy (founded 1798). To accomplish this goal, some ten specific kinds of sites will be chosen for field visits, with class sessions devoted to the contextual history surrounding those locations. Among the sites illustrating successive design solutions for specific kinds of urban activities will be: commercial core arrangements (First and River Streets in Troy, State and North Pearl Streets and Central Avenue in Albany, the Colonie malls); residential districts (including the Stockade neighborhood and G.E. plot in Schenectady, Washington Park in Troy, State Street in Albany as well as subsequent suburbanization); industrial settings (such as Troy's remnants, North Broadway in Albany, and the General Electric site in Schenectady); institutional sites (such as Union College, R.P.I., the Emma Willard School, and SUNY Albany); the state government's office and legislative arrangements in Albany (including the State House, State Office campus, and Empire State Plaza); open space arrangements (such as the Albany and Oakwood rural cemeteries, Washington and Prospect parks); circulatory arrangements, including Hudson river-front developments, the Erie canal, railroads, depots, and yards, streetcar impacts, and such vehicular-induced spaces as carriage drives, garages and parking lots, strip developments, and limited access super highways. Format: seminar. Requirements: a final paper, to be written in two installments, will synthesize these site-visits with course readings and general urban theory, in the context in the rise of the middle class, the service sector, mobility, romanticism and other ideals resulting in urban alternatives; several in-class presentations. No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 40.