The Renaissance Revival building "is constructed of multi-colored brick laid in a faint striped pattern, exquisitely ornamented in contrasting limestone.

Its palazzo composition is articulated by a rusticated, trabeated base and arcaded loggia under an impressive cornice.

[2] The 1907 structure replaced some brownstone residences and the once-fashionable Hotel Brunswick, a series of three connected buildings remodeled by Henry Hobson Richardson in 1870-71.

A 1999 Columbia University academic study that presaged its landmark status praised the structure’s “multi-colored brick laid in a faint striped pattern, exquisitely ornamented in contrasting limestone.

For the latter quarter of the twentieth century, 225 Fifth Avenue was known as the New York Gift Building, for many years the city's premier showcase for glass, ceramic and silver giftware.