The Citigroup Center (formerly Citicorp Center and also known by its address, 601 Lexington Avenue) is an office skyscraper in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Built in 1977 to house the headquarters of Citibank, it is 915 ft (279 m) tall and has 59 floors with 1.3×10^6 sq ft (120,000 m2) of office space. The building was designed by architect Hugh Stubbins, associate architect Emery Roth & Sons, and structural engineer William LeMessurier.
601 Lexington Avenue takes up much of a city block bounded clockwise from west by Lexington Avenue, 54th Street, Third Avenue, and 53rd Street. The building has a 45° angled top with a base on four stilts, as well as a six-story office annex to the east. The tower overhangs St. Peter's Evangelical Lutheran Church at Lexington Avenue and 54th Street, a standalone granite structure designed simultaneously by Stubbins. Also at the base is a sunken plaza, a shopping concourse, and entrances to the church and the New York City Subway's Lexington Avenue/51st Street station. The tower stories are supported by stacked load-bearing braces in the form of inverted chevrons. Upon Citicorp Center's completion, it received mixed reviews from architectural critics, but also several architectural accolades.
Land acquisition for what became Citicorp Center commenced in 1968 and took five years. St. Peter's Church sold its plot on the condition that a new church building be constructed below the tower. The design was announced in July 1973 and the structure was completed in October 1977. During the Citicorp Center engineering crisis less than a year after the building's completion, emergency repairs were made after the tower was discovered to be vulnerable to collapse due to wind. The building was acquired by Boston Properties and Citicorp Center was renamed 601 Lexington Avenue in the 2000s. The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission designated 601 Lexington Avenue as a city landmark in 2016. Over the years, the atrium, plaza, and other public spaces have been renovated.