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Buildings and Structures

Lipstick Building

Commercial and Office Buildings

The Lipstick Building stands at 885 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, completed in 1986 to a design by the architect John Burgee working with Philip Johnson. Its rounded, elliptical footprint and three telescoping setbacks as the tower rises gave the building its popular nickname, a distinctly postmodern departure from the rectilinear glass towers that dominated New York office construction in the preceding decades. Clad in bands of red granite and stainless steel alternating with ribbon windows, it became one of the most recognizable examples of postmodern commercial architecture in the city. The building later drew wider public attention as the location of the investment firm run by Bernie Madoff, whose fraud was uncovered from offices on its upper floors.

Facts
Building Type
Office 1
Location
885 Third Avenue, Manhattan, New York, U.S. 1
Completed Year
1986 2
Height (m)
138 1
Classification
Standing Status
Standing 1
Building Type
Building Type (category)
Skyscraper 2
Connections

Has Building Type

The Skyscraper, Concepts

Entity-backed identity for the building-type enum value this building already carries, resolved to an architecture concept by an explicit value-to-entity map (phase 3 bucket conversion, docs\design_entity_backed_browse_buckets_20260928.md). The building-type fact itself stays on the building unchanged.

In Style

Postmodern Architecture, Styles and Movements
Source Wikipedia: Lipstick Building

Uses Element

Granite, Architectural Materials
Source Wikipedia: Lipstick Building
Stainless Steel, Architectural Materials
Source Wikipedia: Lipstick Building
In the Other Atlases
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Lipstick Building
  • Infobox, building_type
    Office
  • Infobox, location
    885 Third Avenue, Manhattan, New York, U.S.
  • Lead paragraph 1, sentence 2
    completed in 1986
  • Lead paragraph 1, sentence 1
    453-foot-tall (138 m)
  • Entity description and the lead/infobox of the Wikipedia article
    The Lipstick Building stands at 885 Third Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, completed in 1986 to a design by the architect John Burgee working with Philip Johnson. Its rounded, elliptical footprint and three telescoping setbacks as the tower rises gave the building its popular nickname, a distinctly postmodern departure from the rectilinear glass towers that dominated New York office construction in the preceding decades. Clad in bands of red granite and stainless steel alternating with ribbon windows, it became one of the most recognizable examples of postmodern commercial architecture in the city. The building later drew wider public attention as the location of the investment firm run by Bernie Madoff, whose fraud was uncovered from offices on its upper floors.
  • In Style: Postmodern Architecture, Wikipedia categories
    Category:Postmodern architecture in New York City
  • Uses Element: Granite, Wikipedia lead
    The building stands on double-height columns at the base, and the facade is made of red Imperial granite and stainless steel.
  • Uses Element: Stainless Steel, Wikipedia lead
    The building stands on double-height columns at the base, and the facade is made of red Imperial granite and stainless steel.
View the Source
2. Wikidata: Lipstick Building
  • Wikidata Q1827608, class allow-list match (w-wdresolver-0926)
  • Wikidata Q1827608, P571 claim (w-bbfill-artsarchag-0926)
View the Source
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