Wikipedia:Peer review/Albany City Hall/archive1

Albany City Hall

This peer review discussion has been closed.
This article just passed GA, with no comments. I'd like to bring it to FAC, but would feel it a better idea to get a full peer review first. Your help would be appreciated! Thanks upstateNYer 21:51, 4 October 2010 (UTC)

Comments from Jappalang

• Dablinks (toolbox on the right of this peer review page) shows a disambiguation link and a redirect link that goes back to the article; please fix them.
  • Fixed the common council link, but I don't understand why it thinks I'm linking to Stadt Huys. upstateNYer 03:00, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    • Sometimes, a tool just acts perculiar. Jappalang (talk) 03:32, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Lede

• "The current building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in his famous Richardsonian Romanesque style ..."

  "The current building was designed by Henry Hobson Richardson in his particular Romanesque style ..."?

• Is it generally "3.5-story" or "three-and-a-half-story"? Also applicable to main body text.

• "... a 202-foot (62 m) tower ..."

  Better to be explicit or put in a "high" or "tall"? Also applicable to main body text.

• "... from the capitol, city government moved in ..."

  Missing definite article: "the city government"?

• "Critics consider the building to ..."

  What sort of critics?

 Done upstateNYer 03:03, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Former city halls

• Opening paragraph unsourced
  • What do I do here? It's sourced in that the sources disagree. Do I have a source that states that? No, because no source goes that in depth about the building. However it would be misleading to the reader if I didn't make it clear in the beginning that some of the sources disagree. I feel this a fair representation of the sources. Do you suggest I do something different? upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    • One suggestion could be to construct a footnote/reference, presenting an overview of the sources that disagree. Jappalang (talk) 03:32, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
      • Which raises two questions: 1) where would I place the footnote, and 2) why retell everything I say in the section anyway? The inconsistencies are made clear in the prose. Why would I want to repeat myself? upstateNYer 19:55, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Stadt Huys

• What authorities/experts are "George Howell" and "Cuyler Reynolds"?
  • Reference book for Howell and Tenney, and the fact that Reynolds was Albany historian. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "... claims that reports from 1646 state that the ..."

  Repetitive "that ... that ..."

  • Removed second "that". upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "This building was still commonly known as the Stadt Huys, ..."

  I think "still" should be replaced with "also" instead.

  • Agree. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "The roof of the new structure was gabled ..."

  What is "gabled"?

  • Added wikilink. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I think it better to give a short basic description of gabled (in parentheses or such, in addition to the link), but after reading gabled roof, I have no idea how to do that as well... Jappalang (talk) 08:41, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
      • Gable is a pretty common architectural (and even non-architectural) term. I rearranged the photos in gable so there is only one now. That should show you what a gabled roof is. It's a peaked roof that is flat on the sides when the walls meet the roof (as opposed to a File:Rectangular-hip-roof.gif). Explaining this term would be unnecessary detail for the article. upstateNYer 05:05, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

• "In disagreement with the idea of a new Stadt Huys having been built in the 1740s, ..."

  The disagreement was built in the 1740s? See User:Tony1/Noun plus -ing for issues with the noun plus -ing constructs and how to improve such sentences.

  • Switched the clauses. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    • I rephrased the modification. Jappalang (talk) 08:36, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "... there, which was the first formal proposal to unite the British American colonies."

  How is a physical location a "formal proposal"? Suggestion: "Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania presented in the city hall the Albany Plan of Union, which was the first formal proposal ..."

  • Split into two sentences. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "... city hall was home ..."

  I think there should be a definite article (same for the rest of the article).

  • I disagree: it would have to be either "home to" or "the home of", but not "the home to". I think I'll keep it as it is. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "... eventually demolished after a fire in 1836."

  Be specific about the fire; how did it affect the building?

  • Sources aren't specific, and I'm pretty sure I've exhausted all my possible sources (save for newspaper clippings from the time, but I don't know where I'd get access to something like that), so I'm stuck with what I've got. upstateNYer 03:11, 15 October 2010 (UTC)
    • No problems if there are no sources on that, but I will leave this unstruck in case someone can give help with this. Jappalang (talk) 08:41, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Current city hall

• "... after a substitution for granite rather than brownstone."

  "... after they chose to substitute brownstone with granite?"

  • " after granite was substituted for brownstone" upstateNYer 03:14, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "Many of the elements of the exterior design ..."
• "Many elements of the exterior design ..."?
  • Fixed. upstateNYer 03:14, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "... meant to be the transition in the (to-be built) jail, ..."

  Is transition not supposed to be used with "between" to denote the connection between two locations? Hence, begging another question: what is the second location?

  • You're right. upstateNYer 03:14, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

• "Richardson placed most of his efforts on the building's exterior."

  "Richardson devoted most of his efforts to the building's exterior."?

  • Well said. upstateNYer 03:14, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Images

• File:Empire State Plaza symbol 2.svg

  This is a derivative of File:Empire State Plaza Symbol.JPG. In what way is this graphic not copyrighted? See commons:Commons:Derivative works on why photographs have to consider the copyright of the subject.

I'll get this fixed. I understand your concern; I had a legitimate feeling that it was too simple for copyright. However it can be easily replaced with a blacked out version of File:Empire State Plaza illustration.svg, which is a vector version of a photograph: File:EmpirePlaza16.jpg. However, when it is blacked out it will be almost identical to the original file, just fair warning. upstateNYer 02:54, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

"Almost identical" can mean the difference between a copyright violation and otherwise. One is an artist representation (drawn from photographs or personal experience), another is a trace of a photograph. Tracing from a photograph that has been released into the public domain is fine. Jappalang (talk) 03:32, 15 October 2010 (UTC)

Alright, the new image is up. Because that file is used all over the place, I uploaded the new version over the old one. Currently waiting on deletions at Commons to remove the old files, and still waiting for the new image to work its way through the system (that will take some time). But all should be cleared up now. upstateNYer 04:53, 16 October 2010 (UTC)

Overall, this is a pretty good article. Jappalang (talk) 21:33, 9 October 2010 (UTC)

Sorry, had no idea you reviewed. Will respond soon. upstateNYer 04:38, 14 October 2010 (UTC)