[6] The building, designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes[5] and John MY Lee Architects,[7] has 23,000-square-foot (2,100 m2) floorplates.

The Saint Thomas Choir School previously occupied the site,[14] and moved into a new building at 202 West 58th Street.

[5] In order to capitalize on a City of New York zoning bonus, the developers planned to have the building's foundation installed by May 13, 1988; buildings in the area installed before a deadline in the northern hemisphere spring of 1988 received a 20% increase in size in order to spur development of western Midtown Manhattan.

[6] The airline had planned to move its Northeast United States headquarters, its U.S. reservation center, and its New York City ticket office to the building beginning in 1992.

[4] Air France opted to move into 125 West 55th Street instead of spending $2.5 million to upgrade the telecommunications systems and remove asbestos at 888 Seventh Avenue; 125 West 55th Street came with the latest fiber optics systems and did not have asbestos.

Around the same time, Katz Media Group signed a lease for 170,000 square feet (16,000 m2) of space in the building.

[18] Thomas L. Waite of The New York Times said in 1988, before the completion of the building, that the blue glass sheathing around it "may give it a pastoral sheen."