An eleven-story base includes ground-level store space for Christian Dior, designed by Peter Marino,[3][4] with a metal strip above it that acts as a unifying element.

[10] At night, the white section of the building is lit pale green and violet and the other half recedes; neon tubes under the front fold provide a slash of changing colored light.

[1][6] Ground was broken for the building in 1996, but work was then largely halted for four years by disagreements over financing with the landlord, Robert Siegel,[18] and logistical problems with manufacturing the components in multiple countries.

[3][19] A planned addition, including an obelisk echoing the IBM Building and a slab of fritted glass at the Madison Avenue corner, was canceled in 2001 because of the economic downturn.

[6] Ada Louise Huxtable, writing in the Wall Street Journal, called it "the epitome of controlled, refined elegance", "the best new building in New York—not by small degrees but by the equivalent of a jump shot to the moon".

[6] Huxtable noted that the small lobby was intended to seem larger by means of lighted white glass panels, but in her opinion the addition of decoration had defeated the effect.