Sterling Project Development Group

Office Development Projects

885 Third Avenue

Sterling, in joint venture with Hines, developed this 590,000 square foot, 34-story office tower with an additional 8,000 square feet of retail space. Designed by John Burgee with Philip Johnson and completed in 1986, the building is comprised of four oval-shaped cylinders placed above each other, each smaller in diameter than the one below. Red granite spandrels alternate with the shiny steel of horizontal window bands.

Nicknamed the "Lipstick Building" for its shape and coloration, the tower features a pedestrian plaza surrounded by a ring of two-story granite columns that separate the Manhattan streetscape from the building's glass-enclosed 30-foot-tall lobby.