570 Lexington Avenue contains a 50-floor, 640-foot-tall (200 m) stylized Gothic octagonal brick tower, with elaborate Art Deco decorations of lightning bolts showing the power of electricity.

The building was designed to blend with the low Byzantine dome of the adjacent St. Bartholomew's Episcopal Church on Park Avenue, with the same brick coloring and architectural terracotta decoration.

On the corner above the building's main entrance is a clock with the cursive GE logo and a pair of disembodied silver arms holding bolts of electricity.

The General Electric Building occupies the southwestern corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City.

[5] Entrances to the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station, served by the 6, <6>​​, E, and ​M trains, are adjacent to the north side of the building.

[3][7] The Park Avenue railroad tracks, running in an open cut less than a block west of the site, were placed underground as part of the construction of Grand Central Terminal in the early 20th century.

[21] The building's lowest stories contain elaborate masonry and architectural figural sculpture, with a round corner facing Lexington Avenue and 51st Street.

[22] It is a stylized Gothic tower, with elaborate Art Deco decorations of lightning bolts showing the power of electricity.

[18] The centers of the Lexington Avenue and 51st Street elevations contain projecting pyramidal dormers that rise one to three additional stories above the previous setback.

[26][27][17] The facade was designed to blend with the low Byzantine dome of St. Bartholomew's Church and shares the same brick color, with terracotta decorations chosen to coordinate.

The 51st Street elevation has four large and two small display windows, a two-bay-wide loading dock, and a one-bay-wide freight entrance.

[31] The pediment above the freight entrance contains an aluminum panel under a series of round brick semicircles; the doorway below is a simple metal door.

[32][33] The building's northeast corner, facing Lexington Avenue and 51st Street contains a more ornate design than the rest of the facade, as it was intended to lead to a bank space on the first floor.

[27][32] On the pier is a clock with the cursive GE logo and a pair of disembodied silver arms holding bolts of electricity.

Atop the walls of the vestibule is a frieze consisting of a wave mosaic between beige marble bands; it is interrupted by two slightly projecting stones that serve as reflectors.

[47] Cross likened the illumination of the pink-marble walls to broadcast stations, while he described the triangular cut-outs on the ceiling as symbolizing "the directness and penetration of radio itself".

[24][42][46] Extending past the western wall of the lobby is a transverse corridor, which contains a similar ceiling design and terrazzo floors.

Adjacent to the basement lobby is an auditorium with a plain sloped plaster ceiling and white walls, as well as a small stage.

As built, each story in the building's base contained elevator lobbies with terrazzo floors, as well as marble walls with wave mosaics.

[19][53] Raymond Hood and J. André Fouilhoux designed a "technologically advanced" conference room after GE moved into the building, which combined neon and mercury vapor lights to provide consistent indirect illumination.

[55] In September 1929, Tishman Realty & Construction acquired plots at the southwestern corner of Lexington Avenue and 51st Street, passing it to the Bartholomew Building Corporation through intermediary Stanhope Estates Inc.[56] The large corner lot was purchased from the Norko Realty Company and Julian Tishman & Sons, as well as two smaller lots on 51st Street from the Nichols Holding Company.

The northern wall of Cathedral High School was left vulnerable as a result of the demolition, so it was reinforced with cinder concrete.

[62][63] Raymond Hood, one of the architects involved in the construction of Rockefeller Center, suggested negotiating with RCA and its subsidiaries to build a mass media entertainment complex there.

[22] Initial plans called for a more ornate corner entrance with red-and-black marble, aluminum plant motifs, and inlaid enamel.

[80] Architects Pruitt & Brown filed plans in January 1935 to convert the top two floors into a clubhouse for the Elfun Society, a group of GE executives.

Additionally, 570 Lexington Avenue was not located on such a prestigious street, and its design precluded modifications such as dropped ceilings, raised floors, or column removals.

[102][103] At the time of its completion, the General Electric Building was characterized as being in a Gothic style, as the term "Art Deco" had not become popularized yet.

[33] George Shepard Chappell, writing in The New Yorker under the pseudonym "T-Square", wrote that the General Electric Building was "Gothic in line and modern in detail".

"[17] The AIA Guide to New York City stated that the building's "Art Deco details at both street and sky are both sumptuous and exuberant.

"[110] According to Peter Pennoyer, the building was distinctive "not only in its powerful and sculptural massing but also in its colorful and adept combination of the Gothic and Art Deco styles".