650 Fifth Avenue

 office building, skyscraper

492-foot, 36-story modernist office building completed in 1979. Designed by John Carl Warnecke & Associates for the Pahlavi Foundation, a nonprofit organization run by the then-Shah of Iran, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, it was also known for a time as The Piaget Building. The facade is clad in light brown granite, with horizontal stripes of dark-tinted windows on the Fifth Avenue and 52nd Street side, extending also a bit over the corner to the 51st Street side and halfway across the western facade (the rest of those elevations being plain stone).

On the 52nd Street side is a large, colonnaded, angled, 2-story opening creating a plaza with an outdoor escalator leading to the 2nd-floor retail spaces. The plaza recently was altered to include an LED wall. The main entrance, with four set of glass doors (two revolving) is deeply recessed at the back of the plaza area. The 2-story base to the east of the opening is clad in darker brown stone panels. The east facade facing the avenue has a large 2-story glass wall at the base, divided into five bays, with a slightly-recessed entrance in the middle bay of bronze-and-glass revolving doors. A stairway inside the lobby is visible, leading to the 2nd-floor mezzanine spaces. To the south of the glass wall is a storefront set in a 2-story field of white stone framed by a silver metal border with a foliate pattern. At the far south end is a metal service door.

The window bands begin at the 3rd floor. There is a large setback above the 6th floor, with the upper tower recessed from the base on the avenue side. There are two levels of mechanical floors above the base, with three wide, horizontal vent openings on the north elevation and two on the east. The mechanical floor at the top also has three wide horizontal vent openings on the north elevation, and two on the east. The ground-floor storefront on the avenue is occupied by a Nike superstore.

Once the location of one of two almost identical mansions built for William Henry Vanderbilt and his wife Maria Louisa Kissam Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt was Son of The Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt. Following The Commodore's death in 1877, William Henry inherited the bulk of his father's fortune. In 1878, William instructed architect John B. Snook and interior decorator C.B. Atwood to design and furnish "twin" mansions to be constructed the entire block between 51st and 52nd streets. Upon completion Henry moved into the mansion at 640 (51st street corner) and 2 of his daughters resided in the Northern mansion. The two were linked internally but normally operated as individual houses. Following Vanderbilt's Death in 1885, his Wife continued living in the house at 640 until her death in 1896, at which point their youngest son George Vanderbilt inherited the house.

Beginning in 2008 the U.S. government has sought to seize the tower at 650 Fifth Avenue due to its ownership being traced to a shell company controlled by the Iranian government. Proceeds from its sale would be used to benefit victims of Iran-linked terror attacks.