One of my friends from New Jersey vividly remembers when I tried to show her the famous million-dollar staircase. Even though I had lived in Albany for years, I didn’t know where it was located in the building and we couldn’t find it. The building has lots of corridors and several times we would stop and ask for "directions" to the staircase. Of course we were looking for lavishness and not a relatively dark staircase (with intricate carvings that we couldn’t really see). Finally we found out that we had found the staircase (many times over) and that it was called the million-dollar staircase because of all of the money spent. Just recently the staircase was back in the news. In the recent renovation of the capitol building, a skylight was opened up and now the staircase is more beautiful. Take a guided tour of the building or walk around yourself (though this may be hindered greatly since security is tighter). My girlfriend (who I see once a year) and I laugh when we discuss our efforts to find the staircase. And I still remember one piece of trivia from a tour decades ago: all about the dome (or should I say lack of a dome)! And now with the age of the internet, you can take a visual tour of the capitol: http://assembly.state.ny.us/Tour/
The capitol has many interesting features such as beautiful architecture on the outside, the extremely high ceilings, the details on the walls and ceilings (including the carvings along the staircase), the flag room, the assembly room (where I sat in and received a first-hand education of the workings of the delegates) and more. And of course, in warm weather months, the protests on the lawn of the capitol are a sight to be seen. The lawn also is the site of the annual Christmas tree.