The Lipstick Building, also known as 885 Third Avenue and 53rd at Third, is a office building at Third Avenue between 53rd Street and 54th Street in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. It was completed in 1986 and has 34 floors. The building was designed by John Burgee and Philip Johnson for Hines Interests and was developer Gerald D. Hines's first project in New York City. The building's nickname is derived from its shape and color, which resemble those of a lipstick tube.
The building has a nearly elliptical massing, with setbacks above the 19th and 27th stories, as well as a two-story granite penthouse. The structure is actually polygonal; both the base and the setback sections have over a hundred sides. The building stands on double-height columns at the base, and the facade is made of red Imperial granite and stainless steel. On the northeast side of the building is a nine-story-tall rectangular annex. The building has of rentable space, some of which was built in exchange for improvements to the Lexington Avenue/51st Street station. To brace the building against winds from the north, structural engineer Irwin Cantor designed a tube support system and a central core for the building's superstructure.
Hines Interests bought the site from Citigroup in 1981 and hired Burgee and Johnson to design an elliptical office building for the site. Construction started in May 1984 and the building was completed two years later. In the first several years of the building's history, the office space was generally profitable. Hines sold the building in 2004 to Tishman Speyer, which resold a partial stake to Prudential Real Estate Investors. Metropolitan 885 Third Avenue LLC then acquired the building in 2007 under a complex financing agreement in which the underlying land was sold separately to SL Green. After Metropolitan went bankrupt in 2010, Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima and Marciano Investment Group assumed ownership. Ceruzzi Properties and SMI USA acquired the land in 2015, and SL Green took over the building in 2021.
Site The Lipstick Building is at 885 Third Avenue in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. It takes up the western part of a city block bounded by Third Avenue to the west, 54th Street to the north, Second Avenue to the east, and 53rd Street to the south. The L-shaped land lot covers with a frontage of on Third Avenue and a depth of . Other nearby buildings include 599 Lexington Avenue to the southwest, the Citigroup Center at 601 Lexington Avenue to the west, and 919 Third Avenue two blocks north.
An entrance to the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station (served by the ) is next to the building. The entrance cost the building's developer $7 million and was built to increase the amount of space in the building. Under normal zoning regulations, the maximum floor area ratio (FAR) for any building on the tower's site was 15. The developers received a bonus of 20 percent for improving the subway entrance, bringing the FAR to 18. The entrance consists of a staircase and escalator. There is also a landscaped planter next to the subway entrance, adjacent to the building's curved promenade.
Prior to 885 Third Avenue's construction, the site had contained low-rise buildings. Citicorp, which occupied 601 Lexington Avenue immediately to the west, bought the site in mid-1980 for over $7.2 million. Citicorp had intended to erect a residential building there. Within a year, the bank decided to sell the site due to an increase in real-estate values.
Architecture The Lipstick Building at 885 Third Avenue was designed by Philip Johnson and John Burgee for developer Gerald D. Hines. Structural engineer Irwin Cantor, mechanical engineer Cosentini Associates, landscape architects Zion and Breen Associates, and lighting consultant Claude Engle were also involved in the building's development. It is 34 stories tall and measures to its roof. Though the building was officially known as Fifty-third at Third, its unusual massing and the facade's color led to its popular name, the Lipstick Building. It is one of several buildings in New York City that were nicknamed based on their appearance.
As of 2020, due to a legal technicality, the building and the underlying land have separate owners, and the land itself is divided into two ownership sections. A plot on Third Avenue, covering about 21 percent of the site, is owned by a limited liability corporation and leased to SL Green, the owner of the rest of the site.
Form and facade
885 Third Avenue has a nearly elliptical massing because, at the time of the building's development, the New York City Department of City Planning was considering rezoning Midtown Manhattan. The massing contrasted with those of older buildings, which were typically designed with rectangular forms. The elliptical shape allows pedestrians on 53rd and 54th Street to cut across the corners, and it permits additional light and air into the building. Burgee said the design created "a memorable landmark along the blandness of Third Avenue", while noting that the shape was appropriate for Third Avenue but not Park Avenue, which had a more serious character. Critics compared the building's massing to a tube of lipstick and to a luxury liner.
The building is divided vertically into three sections. To comply with zoning laws, the Lipstick Building contains setbacks above the 19th and 27th stories, above which the elliptical massing continues. Although the building appears to be elliptical, the base and both setback sections are actually polygonal, as the outer walls are composed of facets measuring wide. The lowest section contains 180 sides; the midsection above the 19th story has 164 sides; and the top section above the 27th story has 156 sides. There is also a two-story mechanical space atop the roof, which is clad in granite and shaped like an ellipse. The northeastern part of the site contains a rectangular nine-story annex, the base of which contains a restaurant space.
At the base, the building is supported by 28 double-height stainless steel and granite columns, each high. The columns protrude in front of the glass-walled lobby. The tops of the columns are accented with alternately finished granite, separated by steel bands. Behind the columns is an arcade that wraps around a 300-degree section of the building's perimeter. There are plantings adjacent to the arcade on both 53rd and 54th Streets. The exterior of the building is formed of repeating stripes of polished and flame-finished red Swedish Imperial granite spandrels, belts of stainless steel and solar glass ribbon windows set within gray frames.
Features
The building has of space. The site could accommodate 500,000 square feet of usable floor area without any zoning bonuses, but Hines Interests was allowed to add in exchange for improvements to the adjacent subway entrance. The building's lobby contained floor tiles decorated in a checkerboard pattern, as well as a glass-mosaic ceiling. Part of the lobby was converted into a cafe in 1992. The cafe, which had marble and red-stone decorations and abutted a restaurant space, was removed in 2024. As part of this renovation, the original centrally located reception desk was moved to one side and the lobby interior was thoroughly whitewashed. In addition, a sculpture by Imi Knoebel stands in the lobby.
When 885 Third Avenue opened, it had four elevators with marble paneling. Each elevator cab used a different color of marble (green, brown, red, or rose). The elevators are placed on the east (rear) side of the building, allowing the rest of the tower to rise with setbacks. As part of a 2024 renovation, wooden paneling was added inside the elevator cabs.
885 Third Avenue's superstructure is made of reinforced concrete. It includes a tube support system and a central core that tapers at the upper levels. Due to the building's unusual shape and its location on the east side of Third Avenue, winds from the north would cause an extremely large amount of eastward pressure. As a result, structural engineer Irwin Cantor decided to add the central core, which absorbs most of the structural loads. The central core contains the elevators and emergency staircases. Also as a result of the building's unconventional shape, the office space and mechanical equipment had to be adjusted to fit the elliptical form of each story.
History
Development
In January 1981, Gerald Hines bought the site of 885 Third Avenue from Citicorp for $28 million. The land had cost over , a record price for land in Midtown Manhattan. This price did not include the cost of a leasehold in the middle of the block, which was acquired separately. At the time, Hines had developed 273 projects across the United States, but he had never before developed a structure in New York City. According to Hines, "We would like to do something that we're proud of and that the city would look favorably on." The site could be developed with an office building of up to . That April, Burgee and Johnson presented designs for an elliptical building on the site, but construction was not projected to begin for several years, since existing tenants' leases had yet to expire. By August 1981, the details of the project had still not been finalized. Kenneth Hubbard, who led Hines's New York City office, said the elliptical massing was the only certainty in the design.
In 1983, Hines Interests announced it would start constructing a 25- to 30-story building the following year, with of space. At the time, a Hines spokesman said to The New York Times: "We have no tenants yet. Do you know any?" Hines Interests paid $1 million to relocate one resident on the site, Paul Brine, who was paying $90.14 a month for an apartment on the site and had refused to relocate. Hines Interests broke ground for the tower in May 1984, even though there still were no tenants; this contrasted with the firm's typical approach, where it signed a major tenant before starting construction. At the time, it was erecting an office building for EF Hutton at 40 West 53rd Street, and Hines Interests saw the two projects "as a similar commitment".
There was still uncertainty over the building's height as the foundation was being built, as Hines Interests and its partner Sterling Equities wanted to increase the building's floor area ratio by 20 percent in exchange for improving the adjacent subway stations. This would allow the developers to add , for a maximum area of . The bonus was ultimately approved. The project architect was Ronnette Riley of Burgee Johnson Architects, who oversaw the building's development. To attract tenants, Hines Interests opened a marketing center on the 31st floor of the nearby Seagram Building, where the firm exhibited scale models of 40 West 53rd Street and 885 Third Avenue. The developers predicted that they could charge for the space. Tenants paid a modified net lease, but Hines Interests refunded any overpayments for taxes, utility costs, and operating costs.
Hines operation