1221 Avenue of the Americas

Manhattan, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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At 1221 Avenue of the Americas in Midtown Manhattan stands a 205-meter International Style skyscraper completed in 1972 and designed by Wallace Harrison. The 51-story structure features a distinctive seven-story base and austere cuboid massing, with a facade of red granite piers alternating with glass stripes to emphasize vertical lines—a hallmark of the style's severity. Set back 115 feet from Sixth Avenue, the building originally housed McGraw-Hill Financial as its namesake headquarters until 2015. Its dark red terrazzo and marble lobby bears inscriptions from Plato and John F. Kennedy, while its sunken courtyard once displayed an abstract steel sculpture by Athelstan Spilhaus.