The initial design for a cultural building in the Empire State Plaza included plans for a 336-foot-high arch, the Arch of Freedom. At its base, there was to be a 1,500-seat amphitheater and a “shrine” containing a preliminary draft of Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation. In response to the complaints of librarians and museum curators, the building was redesigned in 1965. To learn more about the Arch of Freedom, go to the 98 Acres in Albany blog.