Lipstick Building vs 550 Madison Avenue

Comparing the Lipstick Building and the 550 Madison Avenue is especially interesting because they share much in common. Both rise in New York, NY both were designed by Johnson/Burgee Architects, and they were completed within 2 years of each other.

This overlap gives us a unique opportunity to understand how Johnson/Burgee Architects approached different commissions in the same urban context and historical context during a short period.

The 550 Madison Avenue is clearly the larger tower of the two, both in terms of height and number of floors. It rises to 646ft (197m) with 37 floors above ground, while the Lipstick Building reaches 453ft (138m) with 34 floors above ground.

Of course, each project may have faced different briefs or regulatory constraints, which we don't really know about and could also explain the outcome.

Both the Lipstick Building and the 550 Madison Avenue were designed in line with the aesthetic conventions of the Postmodernism style.

At the time, this style was at the height of its popularity. So Johnson/Burgee Architects followed what was in many ways expected at the time, producing designs that fit comfortably within contemporary architectural norms rather, than breaking with convention.

Both the Lipstick Building and the 550 Madison Avenue were designed to serve as commercial towers, and that has remained their main use since their completion, serving similar roles in the urban fabric.

The 550 Madison Avenue also provides 20 parking spaces.

The two buildings opted for different structural and facade solutions.

The Lipstick Building uses a Framed Tube In Tube system, which combines a strong central core with a perimeter tube of columns, while the 550 Madison Avenue uses a Frame system, that relies on a regular grid of columns and beams to sustain its weight.

And when it came to the facade, the Curtain Wall went with a Curtain Wall facade, which uses a lightweight glass curtain wall hung from the structure, while the 550 Madison Avenue opted for a Modular facade, that employs prefabricated panels, often mixing solid surfaces with smaller windows.