- published: 22 Jan 2008
- views: 2491592
The Sony Tower (also Sony Plaza, formerly the AT&T Building), is an iconic postmodern 647 feet (197 m) tall, 37-story highrise skyscraper located at 550 Madison Avenue between 55th Street and 56th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Designed by Phillip Johnson, it is currently the headquarters of Sony Corporation of America. However the Chetrit Group, which bought the tower for $1.1 Billion in 2013, is converting the tower to a combination condominiums and luxury hotel, set to be completed by 2018.
The building was designed by architect Philip Johnson and partner John Burgee and was completed in 1984. It is close - in concept - to the 1982 Humana Building by Michael Graves. It became immediately controversial for its ornamental top (sometimes mocked as "Chippendale", after the open pediments characteristic of the famous English designer's bookcases and other cabinetry), but enjoyed for its spectacular arched entranceway, measuring about seven stories in height. With these ornamental additions, the building challenged architectural modernism's demand for stark functionalism and purely efficient design. The effect the building had on the public at large has been described as legitimizing the postmodern architecture movement on the world stage.
Madison Avenue is a north-south avenue in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, United States, that carries northbound one-way traffic. It runs from Madison Square (at 23rd Street) to meet the southbound Harlem River Drive at 142nd Street. In doing so, it passes through Midtown, the Upper East Side (including Carnegie Hill), East Harlem, and Harlem. It is named after and arises from Madison Square, which is itself named after James Madison, the fourth President of the United States.
Madison Avenue was not part of the original New York City street grid established in the Commissioners' Plan of 1811, and was carved between Park Avenue (formerly Fourth) and Fifth Avenue in 1836, due to the effort of lawyer and real estate developer Samuel B. Ruggles who had previously purchased and developed New York's Gramercy Park in 1831, who was in part responsible for the development of Union Square, and who also named Lexington Avenue.
Since the 1920s, the street's name has been metonymous with the American advertising industry. Therefore, the term "Madison Avenue" refers specifically to the agencies, and methodology of advertising. "Madison Avenue techniques" refers, according to William Safire, to the "gimmicky, slick use of the communications media to play on emotions."
Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby
Madison Avenue " Don't Call Me Baby "
Madison Avenue - Who The Hell Are You
Madison Avenue - Everything You Need [HQ]
Madison Avenue - Reminiscing
Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby (Motez Radio Edit) [Official Music Video]
Madison Avenue - Don't Call Me Baby (Original Mix)
Madison Avenue " Who the Hell Are You " Don't Call Me Baby "
Madison Avenue - "The Polyester Embassy"(2000) (Full Album)
Madison Avenue ARIA medley 2000
Pretty pictures in your favorite magazines
span the distance between you and Mr Clean(?)
You can take part in the All-American dream
just fill your house up with a million
products you don't need.
You don't ever have to use them.
Buying is all that's asked of you.
But if it's so Goddamn incredible
you can't believe it's true
it's Madison Avenue
Make it all commercial
there ain't nothin' folks won't buy
New fuel to fire up the monsters of Free Enterprise
Gizmos and gadgets, batteries to make them run
Just give your check up at the first of every month
And don't wake up to the uselessness
'till your whole life is overdue.
'Cause if it's so Goddamn incredible
you can't believe it's true
it's Madison Avenue
They can sell sand to a man livin' in the desert.
They can sell tuna to the chicken of the sea...
You are surrounded and confounded and
dumbfounded by the happenings yes it's true
it's Madison Avenue