Philip Johnson and John Burgee (main architects) Simmons Architects (associate architect)
Developer
AT&T Corp.
Structural engineer
Leslie E. Robertson Associates Cosentini Associates
Main contractor
William Crow Construction, HRH Construction
New York City Landmark
Designated
July 31, 2018[1]
Reference no.
2600[1]
550 Madison Avenue (also 550 Madison; formerly known as the Sony Tower, Sony Plaza, and AT&T Building) is a postmodern skyscraper on Madison Avenue between 55th and 56th Streets in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee with associate architect Simmons Architects, the building is a 647-foot-tall (197-meter), 37-story office tower with a facade made of pink granite. It was completed in 1984 as the headquarters of AT&T Corp. and later became the American headquarters of Sony. A four-story granite annex to the west was demolished and replaced with a shorter annex in the early 2020s.
A large entrance arch at the base of the building faces east toward Madison Avenue, flanked by arcades with smaller flat arches. A pedestrian atrium, running through the middle of the city block between 55th and 56th Streets, was also included in the design; a plaza was built in its place in the 2020s. The presence of the atrium enabled the building to rise higher without the use of setbacks because of a provision in the city's zoning codes. The ground-level lobby is surrounded by retail spaces, which were originally an open arcade. The office stories are accessed from a sky lobby above the base. Atop the building is a broken pediment with a circular opening. Opinion of the building has been mixed ever since its design was first announced in March 1978.
The AT&T Building at 550 Madison Avenue was intended to replace 195 Broadway, the company's previous headquarters in Lower Manhattan. Following the breakup of the Bell System in 1982, near the building's completion, AT&T spun off its subsidiary companies. As a result, AT&T never occupied the entire building as it had originally intended. Sony leased the building in 1991, substantially renovated the base and interior, and acquired the structure from AT&T in 2002. Sony sold the building to the Chetrit Group in 2013 and leased back its offices there for three years. The Olayan Group purchased 550 Madison Avenue in 2016 with plans to renovate it, and the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated the building's exterior as a landmark in 2018. Olayan redeveloped the building in the late 2010s and early 2020s.
^ abLandmarks Preservation Commission 2018, p. 1.
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