Stewart's Ice Cream Co - Ballston

Rising from a grassy knoll, hard by the intersection of Route 9 and the Northway, is this ultra modernistic collection of sharply angled buildings. If you whiz by on your way down the hill in a large pickup truck with knobby tires, or even if you just whiz by in an economy minded hatchback, it's easy to get little more than a glance at this interesting architectural phenom. Slow down next time, and take a longer gander. This is the nerve center, the steely beating heart, the place from which all the magic emanates. This, ladies and gentlemen is the corporate headquarters of Stewart's Shops. Consistent with their entire philosophy, the place is compact, built on land whose value must be a fraction of similar commercial acreage nearby, and accessible from a bunch of directions. Frills? Massive gaudy signage? Trophy architecture? Puh lease. If publicly held corporations in the United States were run the way the Dake family runs Stewart's, shareholders would be a whole lot better off methinks. Of course then 3/4 of private aviation would disappear from our skies, so there is a downside I suppose.