550 Madison

The building looming before you is widely considered the defining icon of postmodern architecture. When it opened in 1984 as the headquarters for AT and T, it shocked the architectural world by rejecting the minimalist glass boxes that had dominated city skylines for decades. Its architect, Philip Johnson, purposefully incorporated classical flourishes and masonry to create a design that felt ornamental and historical. You can see this most clearly at the roofline, which features a dramatic split pediment that critics immediately compared to a piece of eighteenth-century Chippendale furniture.