666 Fifth Avenue

It’s nice — especially the lobby — but i basically just pass thru it from the subway to other places in the area.

In the lobby of this building there is a waterfall screen designed by Isamu Noguchi. The lobby is freely accessible to the public, but no photographs are allowed in the building. Even though this is a work of art, this is a private building and no less than 2 security guards will keep you under a watchful eye making sure you don’t try to take a photo of it. I asked if there was a public affairs liaison whom I might be able to contact to arrange and take professional photos of the waterfall. The security guard wasn’t sure what I was asking for, and my request was met with a lot of resistance. Since it was a private building, I was told there was no reason to deal with the public. Really? A place of business that has no reason to deal with the public? It is sad when quality art winds up in private hands and is guarded by overbearing buffoons. Art should be available to everyone.

Way too many of my coworkers spend way too much of their time working in here. Sorry Citi, the building is as hot as the address, but sitting and waiting for my coworkers to get their asses out to happy hour is getting annoying.

To review 666 Fifth Avenue seems appropriate, this being my 666^th review. Erected in 1957, when it was known as the Tishman building, the rather conventional office tower was enhanced by a number of contributions — including the elevator bank ceilings and floors and the waterfall screen in the lobby — by sculptor Isamu Noguchi. For decades the top floor housed, beneath the roof on which 666 was emblazoned in red lights visible for miles on a clear evening, Top of the Sixes, a popular restaurant and bar that was a favorite meeting place of power brokers during the day and the social set at night. In 1998, the ground-​floor retail area was taken over by the NBA and Brooks Brothers — strange bedfellows indeed — and in 2000, the once-​innovative open-​air Fifth Avenue entry gave way to a glass wall with revolving doors. Two years later, the landmark 666 at the building’s top was replaced by the name Citi, representing a nod to the new owner and the end of an era.