488 Madison Avenue was designed by Emery Roth & Sons in the International Style, and it was constructed and developed by Uris Brothers.

The building largely contains a facade of white brick, interspersed with horizontal strips of aluminum windows.

Each of the building's stories contain an average floor area of 19,500 square feet (1,810 m2), a feature intended to maximize usable office space.

488 Madison Avenue remained the headquarters of Look until the magazine stopped publishing in 1971, although it continued to be known as the Look Building for several years.

[12] 488 Madison Avenue, originally the Look Building, was designed by Emery Roth & Sons in the International Style and constructed by Uris Brothers between 1948 and 1950.

[3][13] The two firms were extremely closely associated and collaborated on many projects in the mid-20th century,[14][15] and Emery Roth & Sons were particularly responsible for designing many of the modernist structures on Madison Avenue after World War II.

[13] Architectural writer Robert A. M. Stern called the building among Emery Roth & Sons' "best postwar work".

[25] The remainder of the facade is mostly made of white brick with aluminum windows wrapping in a continuous ribbon around each floor.

[26] The design was intended to place an emphasis on the horizontal axis, as well as give a "light and cheerful" effect to the occupants by having continuous windows.

[33] Percy Uris sought to arrange the elevators so no patron would have to wait more than 35 seconds for a cab, and he also aimed to reduce pedestrian traffic congestion in the lobby.

[28] The old Cathedral College at Madison Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets, was sold in October 1948 to the Uris Brothers for $2.6 million.

[35] Uris Brothers publicly announced plans for 488 Madison Avenue in February 1949 as Cathedral College was being demolished.

[9][17][34] When the building was announced, Architectural Forum said of the design, "Advocates of the strip window can chalk up another recruit to their ranks".

The construction of the steelwork was difficult because the facade's corners were curved, which required specially made steel parts.

[42][43] The first tenants moved to the building in early 1950,[34] and Uris Brothers took a mortgage loan of $7.5 million from the Prudential Life Insurance Company in May 1950.

[48] The other early tenants included the Schrafft's chain of restaurants, which took up parts of the basement and first floor, as well as a florist, tailor, women's accessories, and fabric sales agency.

[5] One visitor to the company's fifth-floor music studio was Bob Dylan, who created some demo tracks in the early 1960s.

[5][59] The Look Building was purchased by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in April 1953[60] and leased back to Uris that August.

[66] Around that time, ownership passed to a joint venture between John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and The Feil Organization.

[5][19][67] By the late 20th century, the Institutional Investor magazine and Abbeville Press had also become tenants of 488 Madison Avenue.

[19][34] Horowitz Immerman Architects renovated the base in the late 1980s, replacing the original facade with a more modern design of steel and black glass.

[73] The building's tenants in the early 2020s included clothing stores Bonobos, Indochino, and Untuckit, as well as the Municipal Art Society and Shawmut Design and Construction.