425 Lexington Avenue

 office building, postmodern (architecture)

411-foot, 31-story postmodern office building completed in 1987 for Olympia & York. Designed by Murphy/Jahn Architects (partnership of Francis Murphy and Helmut Jahn), it has an 8-story Neo-Classical base clad in pinkish-beige marble, bands of reflective glass, and dark-green trim. The northwest and southwest corners are chamfered, and the middle of the west facade on the avenue projects forward. The main entrance is centered in this projecting section, with a 2-story glass wall recessed between angled side walls. There are two sets of revolving doors, and horizontal green stripes continue across the glass wall above. There are two loading docks at the east end of the north facade. On 43rd Street there is a plaza on the east side of the building, with the west wall of the low-rise building on the opposite side of the plaza clad in the same materials as the base of the tower.

The tower is roughly square, with four chamfered corners, clad in a curtain wall of reflective turquoise blue glass, divided in squares by horizontal and vertical strips of the same marble as on the base. At the north, west, and south facades, the top three floors are slanted sharply outward. The ground floor is occupied by Ariston Floral Boutique, Pret-a-Manger restaurant, a Starbucks coffee, a Bank of America branch, an AT&T store, and Market Cafe.

As of 2023, the building's principal tenants are Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and CIBC World Markets.

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