In 1960, New York State created the Office of General Services (OGS). The new office streamlined government operations, improved access to services, and strengthened stewardship of public-owned assets and resources–guiding principles that have led OGS for the past 65 years.
By 1963, OGS had assumed responsibility for parking, fleet management, mail distribution, and messenger services, as well as the New York State Capitol tour program. Around this time, OGS opened its first building on the W. Averell Harriman State Office Building Campus in Albany.
In 1965, officials in Albany broke ground for Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller’s vision for a modern architectural marvel, the Empire State Plaza, where government would operate hand-in-hand with art and culture.
By the mid-1970s, OGS took on the surplus property and food distribution programs from the New York State Education Department, created the Emergency Fuel Office, and operated as the authority on the Freedom of Information Law.
1962:
OGS established free, guided tours of the New York State Capitol. The program continues today, serving more than 25,000 visitors each year.
1965
In the 1960s and 1970s, OGS ran a modernized laboratory housed at the Empire State Plaza to test and assess the quality of goods offered on state contracts.
1967
The Division of Architecture, formerly part of the Department of Public Works, joined OGS as the Design and Construction Group. It went on to complete several major public building projects, including the Utica State Office Building and the Dulles State Office Building in Watertown.
1960s: Empire State Plaza Art Collection
Conceived in the early 1960s by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller, who believed in the “transformative power of art,” the Empire State Plaza Art Collection is New York’s most celebrated and extensive public art collection that is not housed in a traditional museum.
92 works by New York-based masters of 20th-century modernism line the outdoor Plaza and fill the passages of the underground Concourse. The OGS Curatorial and Visitor Services unit manages the collection.
1960s
OGS housed a state-of-the-art computer center. Opened in the 1960s, and pictured here in a photograph from 1976, the computer center was the first centralized operation of its kind in New York State government.
1974
The Harlem State Office Building was dedicated, then rededicated in 1983 as the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in honor of the first Black congressperson from New York State. The 125th Street facility, designed by the Black-owned firm Ifill, Johnson & Hanchard, is a 19-story high-rise. For many years, it was the tallest building in Harlem.
1979-1980
OGS helped put on the Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, designing and constructing venues, procuring equipment, and solving logistical challenges.
