Talk:550 Madison Avenue

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550 Madison Avenue is a featured article; it (or a previous version of it) has been identified as one of the best articles produced by the Wikipedia community. Even so, if you can update or improve it, please do so.

This article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page as Today's featured article on June 4, 2024.

Article milestones
Date	Process	Result
July 2, 2021	Good article nominee	Listed
October 26, 2023	Featured article candidate	Promoted

A fact from this article appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the "Did you know?" column on October 21, 2008.

The text of the entry was: Did you know ... that New York's Sony Building (pictured), with its distinctive Chippendale roof, was originally built by AT&T as its headquarters, but they no longer needed the space after the Bell System divestiture?

Current status: Featured article

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Untitled

It's better known by the original name, as most famous buildings are.

Uh the photo we currently use looks like it's of a different building this one: [1] which also is supposedly of the AT&T building. Can someone from NYC figure this out? Photo in the link is free to use on Wikipedia by the way. --W.marsh 00:50, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I'm from New York, and I took the photograph. The Sony Building, formerly known as the AT&T Building, is the one shown on the page, designed by Philip Johnson, and is correct. The page needs to be moved to Sony Building. Wikipedia needs to keep current. Nobody calls the Metropolitan Life Building the Pan Am Building anymore. It's too POV to hang on to old names when they are no longer called that officially. --David Shankbone 02:09, 11 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

W. marsh's one: [2] is what you might call an AT&T building (on W.B'way, in Tribeca), rather than the AT&T Building (at 57th and Madison). ShankBone is completely wrong: the Lever Building, McGraw-Hill Building, Woolworth Building, Chrysler Building are still all referred to using the name of the original tenant.--JO 24 (talk) 11:13, 19 January 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Page move

This building hasn't been called the AT&T Building for a long time. In five days time I will move it to Sony Building (New York City). Comments on this necessary move to an accurate name are welcome. --David Shankbone 15:37, 19 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

it's the AT&T building. it always will be. if you attended any art history class in any university you'd realize that the corporate name is only important to the corporation. no one else gives a shit.

Requested move 4 June 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Withdrawn by nominator in favour of amended proposal. (non-admin closure) U-Mos (talk) 23:47, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

– Page was originally copy-and-paste moved from this title by DavidShankBone in June 2007, despite clear objection at Talk:550 Madison Avenue. Recent sources in article (regarding protests over development in 2017/2018 and its granting of landmark status) indicate that its WP:COMMONNAME remains AT&T Building ([3] [4] [5] [6] [7]), despite change in ownership over the years. Scholarship and reports concerning its milestone architectural status also naturally use its original name, and it is these that indicate its primary notability (especially as the building currently lies empty). U-Mos (talk) 00:21, 4 June 2019 (UTC) --Relisting. — Amakuru (talk) 12:31, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose. There are five other full-title matches on the DAB page AT&T Building, distinguished only by parenthetical qualifiers. The fact that this sixth one is still commonly known by its former name is a poor argument for its being WP:PTOPIC. Narky Blert (talk) 12:52, 17 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

AT&T Building (Manhattan) could be an alternative then, if it is the WP:COMMONNAME but not the WP:PTOPIC? U-Mos (talk) 21:13, 17 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe, since 32 Avenue of the Americas (also called the AT&T Building) exists and we have a hatnote there. However, 550 Madison is also known by several other names. So for precision, we should probably use the address title instead. epicgenius (talk) 23:39, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Oppose It has been known as the AT&T and Sony building at various times. Its oldest name is not necessarily its common name or the correct name. I am not convinced that AT&T is the predominant name at this point in time._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 19:16, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose - no clear primary topic for the AT&T Building. There are several other buildings with this exact name, and even another AT&T Building in lower Manhattan. epicgenius (talk) 23:38, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Requested move 18 June 2019

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: Not moved. EdJohnston (talk) 01:53, 27 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

It was proposed in this section that 550 Madison Avenue be renamed and moved to AT&T Building (Manhattan).

The discussion has been closed, and the result will be found in the closer's comment.

Links: current log • target log

550 Madison Avenue → AT&T Building (Manhattan) – Amended proposal (see above). Article sources indicate WP:COMMONNAME is AT&T Building, but not that it is the WP:PTOPIC. U-Mos (talk) 23:47, 18 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Mild oppose since natural disambiguation is favored over parenthetical disambiguation. FWIW, I did fix the copy-n-paste move edit history by splitting the history of the dab page. -- JHunterJ (talk) 12:54, 19 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose again, people born before a certain date don't automatically know this as the "AT&T Building". It's better to give it its most up-to-date name, even the Willis Tower is no longer named "Sears Tower" despite that being its very well known original name._{ZXCVBNM (TALK)} 21:52, 20 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose, generally per the above. Buildings change names, but it is much rarer that for them to change addresses. bd2412 T 04:07, 26 June 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Idea to unravel: business advantages of the design

The article could use some references how the 550 building compares with neighbouring buildings in terms of advantages - price of rent, demand, reasons for the shift in demand etc.

Reason: given how popular "minimalism" of cost-effective simple boxes was in 1980's; comapring the 550, the postmodernistic building to its minimalistic neighbours would be a point of interest. Thanks. 81.89.66.133 (talk) 06:59, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the feedback. Unfortunately, there really aren't any references that deal with this issue specifically. 550 Madison was built for a single office tenant, AT&T, so there was initially no rent or other considerations to speak of; the entire building was originally occupied by AT&T above the ground floor. AT&T chose the postmodernist style because the company's executives liked it. – Epicgenius (talk) 18:55, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Im too dumb to make this edit

Is the OSM map displaying in like german or albanian or something for others? can we get this in english please? LegalSmeagolian (talk) 17:07, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@LegalSmeagolian, re. the map: it is displaying in Serbian due to an OpenStreetMap bug. There is more information about this bug at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 212#Serbian place names displayed on Manhattan maps, phab:T230013, and phab:T195318. Basically, the Serbian Latin-script text is overriding other Latin texts including English, and this issue can only be fixed on OpenStreetMap itself.

Here's the thing: on OpenStreetMap, the English names for Manhattan neighborhoods are correctly displayed. This is then processed through Wikimedia Maps, where the English names are also correctly displayed. This bug only exists when transcluding the maps.

This has been an issue for at least two months now, and I have no idea how to fix the bug over at OSM, but hopefully this gets resolved soon. (In fact, it really should be resolved soon; I've had to post this exact thing on several talk pages over the past month.) – Epicgenius (talk) 18:50, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Whack, thanks for the info. LegalSmeagolian (talk) 20:40, 4 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]