The Fred F. French Building is a skyscraper at 551 Fifth Avenue on the northeast corner with 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

The 38-story building is designed in the Art Deco style, with Middle Eastern influences, and contains numerous setbacks as mandated by the 1916 Zoning Resolution.

The base of the facade is ornamented with two bronze entrances and multiple mythological figures, while the top contains a "tower" with Mesopotamian style bas-reliefs and faience tiles.

The Fred F. French Building is at the northeast corner of Fifth Avenue and 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.

[5] The Fred F. French Building was designed by H. Douglas Ives with Sloan & Robertson in the Art Deco style and completed in 1927.

[10] The Fred F. French Building was described by architectural writer Carol Herselle Krinsky as the "only Mesopotamian skyscraper" in New York City.

[16][17] The Fred F. French Building's Middle Eastern decoration was intended to be colorful and noticeable from afar, rather than historically accurate.

[3][10] On Fifth Avenue and on 45th Street, the first story is topped by a bronze frieze that contains depictions of winged beasts and stylized glyphs.

The vestibule's ceiling consists of a depressed barrel vault with a bronze and crystal chandelier, as well as painted stepped corners and bas-relief polychrome beasts.

The vestibule has an Italian travertine floor with beige stone lozenges, black and white marble triangles, and brass strips.

[23][32] Near the top of the building, there are faience panels with sunburst designs on the north and south elevations, with red, orange, gold, and green tiles.

[33][34] The rooftop water tower contains bas reliefs on green background surrounded by a frame of red faience.

[39] The lobby contains decorative details such as chevrons, palmettes, volutes, merlons, and lotus flowers as well as representations of animals such as lions and winged bulls.

[39][40] The passageway from Fifth Avenue is narrower and is divided by pilasters into several bays, each of which contains a multicolored vault with beasts and pattern.

[39][41] The revolving doors from Fifth Avenue are flanked by capitals with double bulls' heads, inspired by those that were originally in the Palace of Darius in Susa.

The gilt-bronze double-leaf elevator doors in the lobby each have eight panels (four on each leaf) depicting sectors in which Fred French had businesses, including industry, commerce, finance, and building.

Tenants modified the interiors on some floors with a myriad of designs, although some modern finishes were placed on top of the original furnishings.

[37] The 12th-floor elevator lobby contains green carpets, stone walls, a decorative plaster coffered ceiling, and marble baseboards and door surrounds.

A circular stair west of the elevators leads to the 13th floor and contains green marble risers, black stone steps, and a handrail and balustrade made of bronze.

At the eastern end of the French Company reception area is the rectangular executive secretary's office, with cast ornamental details on the ceiling.

[78] Among the earliest large tenants in the building were clothier Browning, King & Co.;[79] real estate auctioneers William Kennelly Inc;[80] luggage manufacturer Crouch & Fitzgerald;[81] pulp and paper firm Perkins-Goodwin Company;[82] a ticket office for the St. Paul Railroad;[83] and the American Broadcasting Company.

[89] During the mid-20th century, the Fred F. French Building gained other tenants such as diamond dealer Louis Roselaar,[90] the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation,[91] and the Brazilian government's trade bureau,[92] as well as several advertising firms[93] and three insurance companies.

[96] A group of investors led by The Feil Organization bought the Fred F. French Building for $128 million as part of a move by MetLife to sell off its real estate portfolio.

[98] In 2012, retailer Tommy Bahama opened a three-story flagship store and restaurant in the Fred F. French Building.

[100][101] By the middle of that decade, the building had tenants such as Denihan Hospitality Group, ABM Industries, and law firm Kleinberg, Kaplan, Wolff & Cohen.

George S. Chappell lamented the "rows of dreary factory windows" in The New Yorker, rhetorically commenting: "Can't the Fifth Avenue Association do something about this?

[104] Upon its opening, the building was characterized as being "one of the most popular business palaces in the entire midtown section" because of its technologically advanced systems, central location, and elaborate decoration.

According to the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), the Fred F. French Building so exactly conformed to the 1916 Zoning Resolution that it was illustrated in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language to accompany the definition of the word "setback".

[46][47][105] The AIA Guide to New York City characterized the building as being "from the days when even the greediest developer owed serious and intricate architectural detail and materials to the tenant and public".

[6] Robert A. M. Stern said that the Fred F. French Building "demonstrated that a slab could retain the iconic clarity of the skyscraper type and provide more rentable space per square foot of ground area".