[6] The site at 550 Madison Avenue was described by New York magazine as "unusually human" compared to Midtown's other office developments due to the neighborhood's relatively low height.

[8][19] Unlike other postmodernist structures with irregular ground-level plans, 550 Madison Avenue was designed as a rectangle at ground level, similar to older International Style buildings.

[6][11] The facade is clad with 60,000 pieces of roughly textured pink Stony Creek granite, weighing up to 7,000 pounds (3,200 kg) each, supplied by Castellucci & Sons from its Connecticut quarry.

[18] Burgee said the pink color was chosen to contrast with 590 Madison Avenue, the gray-green granite structure built simultaneously by IBM to the north.

[43] Originally, 550 Madison Avenue had an open-air arcade north and south of the central archway, extending west to the public atrium behind the building.

[50] The 55th and 56th Street elevations of the facade contain flat arches measuring 16 feet (4.9 m) tall, supported by granite-clad piers at regular intervals.

[48][67][68] Between 1992 and 1994, after multimedia conglomerate Sony acquired the building, Dorothea Rockburne was hired to paint two abstract frescoes, and Gwathmey Siegel redesigned the lobby with wooden paneling and black glass.

[24] The public atrium between the annex and the tower was originally covered by a metal and glass roof, the ceiling of which was a half-barrel vault (shaped as a quarter-circle).

In addition, AT&T bought $5.5 million worth of honey-colored Burmese teak furnishings such as paneling, trim, and doors from L. Vaughn Company, which hired 75 workers to supply the rare wood.

[46] A Times editorial that month praised the AT&T project, as well as the neighboring IBM development at 590 Madison Avenue, as a "declaration of corporate commitment" to New York City, which had then recently rebounded from its fiscal crisis.

[6][15] Mayor Ed Koch described the project as "a strong vote of confidence" in the city's future,[104] and the news media characterized it as part of a trend of midtown revitalization.

[104][c] The design, particularly the broken pediment, received widespread media attention, prompting AT&T to reexamine the plan in detail before deciding to proceed without modifications.

[44][107] In late 1978, the project received several floors' worth of zoning "bonuses" and exemption from setback regulations, in exchange for public space, a three-story communications museum, and a covered arcade on Madison Avenue.

[156] Sony received over 20 bids, including from Joseph Sitt's Thor Equities, Mitsui Fudosan, and a partnership led by the Brunei Investment Agency.

[158][159] Shortly afterward, Sony filed eviction proceedings against Joseph Allaham, a longtime tenant and Chetrit's friend, who operated a pizzeria and a restaurant in the base.

[172][173] The Olayan Group and Chelsfield announced plans to rebrand 550 Madison Avenue and reconfigure the existing space, which was then empty besides Allaham's pizzeria.

The firm planned to add a glass curtain wall along the base on Madison Avenue, as well as demolish the arcade and annex on the western end of the site, replacing it with a garden.

[187][188] The LPC determined that the lobby's design had changed significantly when Spirit of Communication was removed and the arcades were enclosed, making the space ineligible for interior landmark status.

[78] The Olayan Group's Head of Real Estate Erik Horvat said the renovation would help 550 Madison "compete against Hudson Yards, One Vanderbilt and the best buildings in the city".

[107][209] Paul Goldberger called it "post-modernism's major monument" but felt that the broken pediment "suggests that a joke is being played with scale that, may not be quite so funny when the building [...] is complete".

[214] Robert Hughes of Time magazine called it "peculiar rather than radical"[209][215] but said it gave other designers permission "to build their own monuments of the hybrid" postmodernist style.

[6][9] Goldberger was the first person to publicly characterize the pediment as "Chippendale", after the British manufacturer's furniture, but said the term had been first used by Arthur Drexler of the Museum of Modern Art,[40][44] who did not want to be associated with the nickname.

Chicago Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp wrote that the pediment had "made instant history" and incited "a natural uproar",[216] and the architect Edgar Tafel called it "Philip Johnson's foible".

[221] Der Scutt, architect of the neighboring Trump Tower, said in 1981 in response to criticism of 550 and 590 Madison Avenue: "I can't find anything oppressively hideous in IBM or AT&T.

[20][119] Art historian Vincent Scully said 550 Madison Avenue "takes charge of the street" and that the pediment "has the effect of making us wonder why we ever allowed people to build skyscrapers with flat tops".

"[74] Others disapproved of the many references to Sony, including Ruth Messinger, Manhattan's borough president at the time, who perceived the atrium as "overly commercial".

[74] Progressive Architecture characterized the atrium as "not so bad" aesthetically but said that Sony's commercial amenities were not necessarily a sufficient tradeoff for public space.

[229] With ornamental additions such as the pediment and ground-level arch, the building challenged architectural modernism's demand for stark functionalism and purely efficient design.

[38] Wolf Von Eckardt wrote for The Washington Post in 1978, "I believe Johnson may well unite contemporary architecture again and lead it out of both the glass box and the concrete sculpture to a new ecumenic gentility.

[35] In a conversation with LPC researchers, Burgee said he received numerous letters from younger architects who expressed their gratitude that "the previous rules no longer apply".