Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe along with Philip Johnson, Ely Jacques Kahn, and Robert Allan Jacobs, the high-rise tower is 515 feet (157 m) tall with 38 stories.

A glass curtain wall with vertical mullions of bronze and horizontal spandrels made of Muntz metal form the building's exterior.

[8][16] During the late 19th century, the Seagram Building's site had included the original Steinway & Sons piano factory, as well as tenements made of brick or brownstone.

[43] Architecture critic Lewis Mumford said of the plaza: "In a few steps one is lifted out of the street so completely that one has almost the illusion of having climbed a long flight of stairs.

[42] The northern, southern, and western ends of the slab overhang the plaza and are supported by bronze-clad columns at their perimeters, forming an arcade in front of the entrance.

[51][77] At the building's completion, General Bronze said the facade would need to be cleaned twice a year with soap, water, and lemon oil to prevent discoloration;[78] this work could be performed using the window-washing scaffold.

[45] The "spine" on the eastern side of the slab is clad with serpentine marble panels instead of glass because of the presence of shear walls made from concrete.

These included the Seagram murals by Mark Rothko, which he claimed were intended to sicken the patrons of the Four Seasons Restaurant,[86] as well as Pablo Picasso's painted curtain Le Tricorne, designed for the Ballets Russes in 1919.

The central section comprises three corridors connecting the western and eastern thirds of the lobby, within four elevator and stair enclosures,[101] whose walls are clad with travertine.

[97] The Grill and Pool (formerly the Four Seasons Restaurant) occupy two stories in the Seagram Building's "bustle", east of the lobby and main shaft.

[105] The Lobster Club's main dining room has brightly colored furniture and upholstery, 150 drip-painted concrete floor tiles by artist Laura Bergman, and three bronze-partitioned booths on the south wall.

[113] When used by Brasserie, the foyer had contained a stone wall, and a video camera displayed images of patrons entering from the street, with an LCD sign announcing every customer's entry.

[105] Each story's ceiling is surrounded by luminous tiled panels, activated by a timer,[138] which are arranged in a consistent band measuring about 11.5 feet (3.5 m) wide.

[140] Air conditioning fixtures are placed only 11 inches (280 mm) above the floor slab, enabling the windows to be full-height glass walls.

[144] The fourth floor contained several large spaces for meetings and receptions, including a 69-by-36-foot (21 by 11 m) assembly room that could be partitioned into three sections.

[153] Kahn, working with several rental agents, sketched numerous diagrams for the massing of a hypothetical tower on the site, which they called "Operation Skytop".

[23][149][161] Lambert wrote a letter to her father that August, arguing that any new headquarters should be a "contribution" to the city in addition to serving as a symbol of Seagram.

[149][160] Pereira & Luckman's design was still publicly marketed as a "preliminary model" but, as Interiors's managing editor Olga Gueft said, media reports suggested the original plan "had been dumped overboard".

[25] Mies moved to a nearby apartment to oversee the Seagram Building's development, and he applied for membership in the American Institute of Architects (AIA)'s New York division, but was rejected in December 1955.

[188] The building also housed Goodson-Todman Productions;[189] the sales headquarters of Eagle Pencil;[190] an industrial designer;[191] a property manager; an art producer;[192] a direct-mail advertising company;[193] and various other commercial tenants.

[199] The World Monuments Fund displayed a moai head in the Seagram Building's plaza in 1968[200] to draw attention to the artifacts on Easter Island, which were seen as endangered.

The Seagram Company eventually found its own headquarters' rent to be too high, giving up half of its 150,000 square feet (14,000 m2) in the building and moving approximately 600 of its 983 employees elsewhere in 1972.

[216][217] During the 1970s, Seagram received several offers for the building from potential buyers, and the company contemplated selling it and leasing back its own space.

In the absence of official landmark status, the company mandated that the new owner preserve the exterior and public spaces in their original condition.

[96] Curbed wrote that the Seagram Playground was one of several large investments that Rosen had made in "prime midtown real estate at a time when it hasn't exactly bounced back" from the pandemic.

[250] The building was almost fully occupied by the end of 2022, after firms such as Blue Owl Capital and Clayton, Dubilier & Rice signed or renewed their leases.

"[260][263] At a meeting of the Italian Cultural Institute the following year, architect Gino Pollini said the Seagram Building was "a masterpiece of functional and esthetic architecture".

Eight years after the building opened, Ada Louise Huxtable wrote that it was "dignified, sumptuous, severe, sophisticated, cool, consummately elegant architecture".

[202][284] Whyte praised the plaza as allowing a sense of choice, in that patrons could lie down or sit on the ledges or steps, despite their relatively plain design.

[289] In mid-2005, the Skyscraper Museum in Lower Manhattan asked 100 architects, builders, critics, engineers, historians, and scholars, among others, to choose their 10 favorites among 25 of the city's towers.