Unlike similar structures on small lots, such as the Fred F. French Building, 400 Madison Avenue is symmetrical.

[13][a] George Shepard Chappell, writing in The New Yorker under the pseudonym "T-Square", lambasted 400 Madison Avenue's shape as "distressingly pretentious" with "entirely unnecessary" detailing on the facade.

[9][14] However, the design was praised in Architecture and Building magazine as "a distinct ornament" to Madison Avenue, with an "exceedingly interesting block front".

According to LaZinsk, cream terracotta could be used to form highlights and shadows that "vary with the changing position of the sun", even as these details maintained the same general effect throughout the day.

[19] The primary facade at Madison Avenue contains a ground story clad with pink granite, as well as eight storefronts and two additional windows.

[20] The storefront openings are separated by vertical pilasters and contain decorative features such as chevrons, quatrefoils, colonettes, and finials.

[20] On Madison Avenue, the narrow bays are flanked by triple-story engaged columns, which are topped by foliated capitals.

On all sides, the windows on each of the sixth through 14th stories are generally separated vertically by slightly projecting piers and horizontally by recessed spandrel panels.

[b] Because of the narrow lot area, all offices were lit by windows along any of the three street frontages and there were no interior light courts.

[7][30] The narrow shape was described by a contemporary New York Herald Tribune article as "an unusual structure both in appearance and as a real estate renting proposition".

[8][32] The banker George L. Ohrstrom founded the 400 Madison Avenue Corporation in 1928 to erect a building at that address in New York City.

He cited a mid-1929 survey that found that, during a ten-hour period in a typical weekday, over 600,000 people passed on Madison Avenue between 42nd and 50th Streets.

[35][36] In October 1928, G. L. Ohrstrom & Co. Inc., along with two other companies associated with the project, issued $1.9 million in first mortgage bonds, to be due in twenty years.

[40][41] The building was intended specifically for small office tenants,[8][32] and the Charles F. Noyes Company was hired in January 1929 to rent out the space.

[31] 400 Madison Avenue contained less than a sixth of the nearby Chrysler Building's floor space, and the developers believed there was a market for firms, professionals, and businesspersons who wanted "small but impressive offices", such as financial firms in Lower Manhattan that desired a Midtown branch office.

[28] One such advertisement, geared toward lawyers, praised the proximity to "many of America's most prominent business houses", as well as to the area's shops, hotels, and apartments.

[28] Among the early tenants were numerous firms trading on the New York Stock Exchange, such as Cowen & Co.[46] and Joseph Siven & Co.[47] George McAneny, the former president of the New York City Board of Aldermen, leased nearly an entire floor for the Ritz-Carlton chain of hotels, as well as the Regional Plan Association, both of which he had an interest in.

[48][49] A Bulgarian consulate was also housed in the building,[50] as was the League of Women Voters of New York,[51] the Lefcourt shoe company,[52] and an Austrian tourist office.

[57] After World War II, the building contained the offices of producer David O. Selznick and actress Lucille Lortel.

[16] Investors Kimmelman and Zauderer bought a controlling interest in 400 Madison Avenue from the Girard Trust Company and the Starrett Corporation in 1950.

[62] The company's executive vice president William S. Macklowe said the firm was initially looking for large tenants; at the time, thirty percent of the building was vacant and the original electrical system remained in place.