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Sony Tower

550 Madison Avenue, Plaza District
New York City NY United States

Status:
built
Construction Dates
  Began1980
  Finished1984
Floor Count37
Building Uses
 - mixed use
 - office
 - parking garage
 - residential
 - retail
Structural Types
 - highrise
 - atrium

 Heights ValueSource / Comments 
Roof647 ftCTBUH
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Description
Architect: Johnson/Burgee Architects

Developer: AT&T

- Known for its famous Chippendale-like top.

- Completed in 1984, the Sony Plaza was one of the first postmodern buildings in NYC.

- The Building was occupied by AT&T from 1984 to 1992 when it was sold to Sony. Today it is the National Headquarters for the Sony Corporation.

- The building rises 647 feet high, but only has 37 floors, a small number for a building that height, this is because of its seven story tall lobby, designed to house a large statue: "The Spirit of Communications", by Evelyn L. Batchelder. The statue formerly stat atop AT&T's former headquarters building at 195 Broadway in Lower Manhattan. The Statue was eventually moved out of the lobby after AT&T left the building in 1992. It now sits at AT&T's headquarters in New Jersey. The Plaza, intended to be a public space, was never popular with the city and was converted into enclosed retail after Sony aquired the building.

- The building is clad in gray/pink granite from the same quarry that supplied the facade for the landmark Grand Central Station a few blocks away.

- One of the three luxurious office towers that make up The Plaza office district which also include the Trump Tower and 590 Madison.

- Like its next door neighbor, 590 Madison Avenue, both buildings are home to an atrium and both building's main developers (AT&T, IBM) left the building not long after they where completed.

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