Excelsior University

The Albany Pine Bush, referred to locally as the Pine Bush, is one of the largest of the 20 inland pine barrens in the world. It is centrally located in New York's Capital District within Albany and Schenectady counties, between the cities of Albany and Schenectady. The Albany Pine Bush was formed thousands of years ago, following the drainage of Glacial Lake Albany.The Albany Pine Bush is the sole remaining undeveloped portion of a pine barrens that once covered over 40 square miles (100 km2), and is "one of the best remaining examples of an inland pine barrens ecosystem in the world." By 2008 it included all parcels of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve (a state nature preserve spanning 3,200 acres (1,300 ha)), the properties that connect these protected parcels, and some of the surrounding areas that abut the preserve. The 135-acre (55 ha) Woodlawn Preserve and surrounding areas in Schenectady County are the western sections of the Pine Bush, separated geographically by other properties from the Albany Pine Bush Preserve in Albany County.Historically regarded as desolate and dangerous to cross, the Pine Bush has come to be seen as a historical, cultural, and environmental asset to the Capital District and Hudson Valley regions of New York. It is home to the Karner blue butterfly, an endangered species first identified by author Vladimir Nabokov in 1944 using a type specimen from the Pine Bush. In 2014, Albany Pine Bush was designated as a National Natural Landmark by the National Park Service.

The Rapp Road Community Historic District is located in the Pine Bush area of Albany, New York. It is a 14-acre (5.7 ha) residential neighborhood. In 2002 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was established in the 1920s by Rev. Louis W. Parson, an African American minister, and his wife, who had moved north from Mississippi in the Great Migration out of the rural South to industrial cities, originally settling in Albany's South End. He was followed by other members of his congregation. Neither he nor they liked urban life much, and eventually he bought the land along Rapp Road where they all moved. Half of the original purchase was taken by the state for road projects in the 1970s. The remaining half, today's historic district, has many of the original buildings. Most of the original families' descendants still live there. It is a rare intact example of a chain migration community from the Great Migration, although many such communities formed in northern cities.

In the early afternoon of October 8, 2014, a coworker of Jin Chen, 39, of Guilderland, New York, United States found the bodies of Chen, his wife and their two children in their home. Police were called to the scene and determined that the family had been killed sometime in the hours before dawn that day by either a knife or a hammer. No suspects have been identified and as of January 2020, the investigation is continuing. It was the first quadruple homicide to occur in New York's Capital District, the region surrounding Albany, the state capital. A considerable amount of forensic evidence, including DNA, has been collected but has not generated any leads; cultural, legal, and linguistic barriers have also made progress difficult despite outreach to other law enforcement agencies in other large U.S. cities, Canada, and China. Investigators have considered links to Chinese American organized crime; there is evidence the Chens may have been involved in illegal gambling and/or the human trafficking of undocumented immigrants from China. They have also considered whether the killings are connected to two other unsolved slayings of Chinese immigrant families elsewhere in the U.S. during the early 2010s.

Crossgates Commons is a large shopping plaza in Albany, New York along Washington Avenue Extension. It is owned and managed by Pyramid Management Group, Inc., who also own and manage the nearby Crossgates Mall.

Westmere is a hamlet in the town of Guilderland, Albany County, New York, United States. Since the 1970 Census, a census-designated place (CDP) has been established with the name of Westmere for tabulating the population of what the census has defined as the boundaries for Westmere. The population was 7,284 at the 2010 census. It is a suburb of the neighboring city of Albany. U.S. Route 20 (Western Avenue) bisects the community and is the major thoroughfare and main street. Along Western Avenue are numerous strip malls, shopping plazas, and commercial buildings, with residential use on the side streets to the north and south. Crossgates Mall, the Capital District's largest shopping mall, is in Westmere's northeastern corner.

Crossgates Mall is an enclosed, automobile-oriented, super-regional shopping mall located in the Albany, New York suburb of Guilderland. It is the largest indoor shopping center in the Capital District, and the third largest in the State of New York. The mall is anchored by retailers Macy's, JCPenney, Dick's Sporting Goods, Primark, Burlington, and Best Buy. Both Crossgates Mall and the nearby Crossgates Commons shopping plaza are owned and operated by the Pyramid Management Group, Inc. through multiple subsidiaries. The mall has a gross leasable area of 1,700,000 sq ft (160,000 m2) and features 212 stores and restaurants as well as an 18-screen IMAX Regal Cinema theater. Vehicular access is available from Western Avenue, Washington Avenue Extension, and a ramp just south of Adirondack Northway terminus. There are 10-12 parking lots. Public transit is available via a major bus stop served by multiple Capital District Transportation Authority routes.

Karner is a hamlet of the town of Colonie, Albany County, New York, United States. Once called Center Station, it was a stop along the New York Central Railroad (NYCRR) that became famous for being the site where the Karner Blue butterfly was first identified.

Kohl's Plaza is a strip mall at 1814 Central Avenue in Colonie, New York which includes the big box store Kohl's and several smaller tenants. It is one of two original locations for Kohl's in the New York Capital Region. Prior to Kohl's arrival in the plaza, it was known as Builder's Square Plaza as Builders Square was the only big box store in the plaza. The plaza has been in place since at least 1990. The Mohawk Drive-in Theatre operated from 1946 to 1986 at this location.

WDCD was a news/talk radio station licensed to Albany, New York, United States and served New York's Capital District, Adirondacks, and much of western New England. The station was owned by DJRA Broadcasting, and broadcast on 1540 kHz at 50 kilowatts from a three-tower directional antenna array adjacent to the station's studios in Colonie, New York.The station went off the air in April 2012 and returned to the air on March 27, 2013 simulcasting Christian talk-formatted WDCD-FM 96.7. On July 10, 2013, The NEW 1540 AM was announced with a news/talk format including Laura Ingraham, Bob Dutko, Neil Boron, Jerry Doyle and Andrea Tantaros. On October 16, 2017, WDCD went silent for the final time. The station surrendered its license to the FCC on September 28, 2018.

Stuyvesant Plaza is an upscale shopping plaza and office complex located in the Albany suburb of Guilderland, on Western Avenue (US 20), near the south end of the Adirondack Northway. The shopping portion in its current incarnation features shops like Pottery Barn, Talbots, and White House/Black Market. The complex includes a number of high and low rise office buildings near the shopping center. The shopping plaza opened in 1959, making it the third oldest in the Capital Region, after Latham Corners Shopping Center in 1957.

Rensselaer Lake is an artificial lake in Albany, New York, United States named for Major-General Stephen Van Rensselaer, last patroon of Rensselaerswyck. The lake was Albany's first municipally-owned source of water. It is part of a 57-acre (23 ha) park and the state's Albany Pine Bush Preserve. The lake and park have been under the purview of the Albany Water Authority since 2003.

Colonie is a village in Albany County, New York, United States. The population was 7,793 at the 2010 census.The village of Colonie is within the town of Colonie. Both are north of the city of Albany, the capital of New York.