The Columbus Circle 2 building was once called by architecture critic Ada Louise Huxtable "a die-cut Venetian palazzo on lollipops," referring to the support columns at its base, and this is how it gained the name of “Lollipop Building.”

There was a lot of talk, inside and outside the court of law, about the idea of changing the original 1964 structure by Edward Durell Stone, but, despite its historic value, both the ones who wanted to keep the building as it was and those who wanted a change agreed that the old fashioned “bunker” was not very functional, due to the lack of windows which led to a box-like façade and a dark interior.

In 1994, when the building turned thirty years old, it became eligible for landmark designation. Ten years later, the National Trust for Historic Preservation called it one of America's "11 Most Endangered Historic Places," and in 2006 it was listed as one of the World Monuments Fund's "100 Most Endangered Sites."

Among those who fought for the preserving of Stone’s creation were Writer Tom Wolfe and Robert A.M. Stern, dean of the Yale School of Architecture, who claimed that Stone's design represented an early, bold attempt to loosen the strictures of the International Style.

Now the home of the new Museum of Arts and Design, the windowless building was first opened in 1964 as the Huntington Hartford Museum, a place for the heir to The Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company, aka the A&P supermarkets, to store his art collection, but was generally referred with its candy name. After the Hartford failed, Stone’s building mostly stood empty for 40 years, until MAD took over and brought in the 52-year-old architect Brad Cloepfil of the Portland, Oregon, firm “Allied Works Architecture” to operate a complete makeover to the candy box.

To carry out this transformation, 300 tons of concrete were removed from the original structure and were replaced with iridescent terra-cotta. The light finally made its way inside the building, as narrow bands were cut into the outer walls, allowing the visitors to see the views through the vertical slots toward Columbus Circle and Central Park. The bands continue inside as glass tracks embedded in the floors.

The building kept its general shape and original size, and its famous lollipop columns at the base, now covered in glass, as a reminder of the old days and as a tribute to the great architect who first imagined it.

Edward Durell Stone, who also designed the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Florida State Capitol, the World Trade Center of New Orleans and the U.S. embassies in London and New Delhi, just to name a few, was a prominent modernist architect in his time, but in the past years, some of his works were altered or destroyed. His Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, built in 1966, was demolished in 2005. There were also alterations to  the North Carolina State Legislative Building in Raleigh, North Carolina, built in 1963 where Stone's brass decorations were covered with white neoclassical pilasters and pediments.