When the tower opened, the company's corporate offices occupied about a third of the space, and the ground story had commercial concerns such as the Le Bernardin restaurant and a branch of the Whitney Museum.

[17][18] The work includes large murals by Sol LeWitt and Roy Lichtenstein and sculptures by Scott Burton and Barry Flanagan.

[12][13] In addition, works by Milton Avery, George Bellows, James E. Buttersworth, Marsden Hartley, and Alex Katz decorated the offices.

[6] One of the early plans for Axa Equitable Center, which was illustrated in a monograph of Barnes's work, was for the massing to instead contain setbacks on the west and east, with the north and south elevations rising as a slab-like wall from the street.

[18] On the galleria's eastern wall is a passageway to 1285 Sixth Avenue's lobby,[12][30] which originally connected with the Paine Webber Art Gallery in that building.

[32] An elevator lobby for the First National Bank of Chicago, just east of the galleria, contained Agnes Denes's artwork Hypersphere: The Earth in the Shape of the Universe, a set of 144 glass panels.

[24] In addition, Flanagan designed two bronze sculptures at the galleria's north and south ends, each depicting animals in whimsical scenes.

[1] Equitable was allowed to include an additional 49,161 square feet (4,567.2 m2) in exchange for providing privately owned public space.

[22] From the beginning, 787 Seventh Avenue contained several "smart" building systems, such as high-capacity fiber optic cables and conduits, as well as a computerized display to monitor energy use, security, and elevators.

[53] On the eastern wall of the atrium, facing the main archway on Seventh Avenue,[24][54][55] is a Lichtenstein artwork, Mural with Blue Brushstroke, which measures 68 by 32 feet (20.7 by 9.8 m).

[24][54] Thomas Hart Benton's America Today murals, commissioned in 1931, were originally installed in the northern passageway,[54][59] around the elevator core.

[6][20][29] The western room, which served as Equitable's main boardroom, was originally designed with a green carpet with a large circular table.

[83] At the time, office space in Midtown Manhattan was in high demand and Equitable felt it could lease its Sixth Avenue building at a great profit.

[8] General contractor Turner Construction performed the demolitions manually, even though it had the city government's permission to use dynamite, since it wished to minimize disruption to neighboring structures.

[98][42] Equitable's new tower was one of several high-rise developments planned for the area at the time,[99][100] in spite of a slight decline in New York City's office market.

[105] A public preview of the new tower's boardrooms took place on February 1, 1986, as part of a benefit event for the Center for Arts Information.

[48] Douglas McGill of The New York Times called the Whitney branch the "latest and largest addition to an extensive collaboration between a major art museum and the corporate world.

[108] By October 1987, when Black Monday occurred, Equitable Tower was fully leased despite charging higher rents per square foot than other buildings in the area.

[118] Much of Equitable's space at 787 Seventh Avenue was taken by law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher,[119] and the floor just below the penthouse was occupied by Paramount Capital.

[126] Much of Ernst & Young's space was taken in 2001 by law firm Sidley Austin,[127] which had to renovate 11 floors within two months after its old World Trade Center offices were destroyed in the September 11 attacks.

[139] By the end of the year, the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) had shown interest in acquiring 787 Seventh Avenue for $1.9 billion.

[145] A helicopter crashed on Axa Equitable Center's roof on June 10, 2019, killing the pilot and sparking a fire that prompted the building's evacuation.

The reduced valuation reflected the fact that BNP Paribas had downsized its space at the building from 450,000 to 300,000 square feet (42,000 to 28,000 m2), while the lease of another major tenant, UBS, was scheduled to expire in 2026.

[151][152] As of 2024[update], several financial and law firms occupy the space, including: The design of Equitable Tower was largely criticized upon its completion.

"[20][29] The New Criterion cited Equitable Tower's "large clunky base", its "replaceable"-looking granite and limestone facade, and its massive arches that "seem more like movie-set novelties" as flaws in the design.

[159] Progressive Architecture characterized the collection as "one of the more successful corporate art programs to come along in some time", as opposed to the "resolutely ho-hum" character of much of Equitable Tower.

[18] Phaidon Press wrote of the art collection: "AXA Equitable Life Insurance wished to project a positive image of itself to New Yorkers—as progressive, leading edge and civic-minded, as demonstrated by this indisputable gift to the city.

[32] Architectural Record described the building as having been proposed "amidst a swirl of controversy over what some see as an over-concentration of new skyscraper construction in Manhattan's crowded midtown".

[98] Nonetheless, the development of Equitable Tower directly improved the character of the surrounding area, particularly the Midtown portion of Seventh Avenue, in the mid-1980s.

[162][163] Following the tower's construction, William Zeckendorf developed the nearby One Worldwide Plaza to improve the character of Eighth Avenue.