Landmarks Commission Calendars Midtown Skyscraper Before Redesign

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The city Landmarks Preservation Commission voted to calendar a Midtown skyscraper for landmarks designation one month after an architecture firm unveiled plans to redesign the building's facade.

Eight landmarks commissioners voted to calendar 550 Madison Avenue, located between East 55th and 56th streets, during a Tuesday meeting, according to the meeting minutes. The granite-clad skyscraper, also known as the AT&T Building, was designed in a Postmodern style by architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and was completed in 1984, according to the commission.

Architecture firm Snøhetta announced in late October that it had been hired to redesign the building's bleak, granite facade. The firm planned to replace the granite facade with large glass windows, upgrade retail space in the building's base floors and double the building's public space to include a large outdoor garden, according to a press release.

"Snøhetta’s design will update the building with state-of-art systems and breathe new life into the building’s public, retail and office spaces for the contemporary needs of one of the world’s most recognized avenues," reads the firm's October press release.

Despite Snøhetta’s desire to modernize the building, the Landmarks Preservation Commission saw value in maintaining its postmodern architecture, Curbed first reported. The building's granite-heavy design was a direct rebuke of the increasingly popular glass-heavy modernist style of New York City's skyscrapers.

"This is probably the first and definitely the most iconic postmodern building in New York City," Meenakshi Srinivasan, chair of the LPC, said Tuesday as reported by Curbed. "I think some of us know the building is in play, so the time is right."

The LPC will hold public hearings on the building and then vote on whether or not to designate 550 Madison Avenue a landmark. Dates for those meetings have not been announced.

Rendering courtesy Snøhetta