3D print the Lipstick Building
A free, printable model of the Lipstick Building, a tall oval tower with stepped setbacks, and the dense Midtown skyscrapers around it, generated from real map data in your browser.
Free, in your browser. Exports a slicer-ready 3MF.
About the Lipstick Building
The Lipstick Building, also called 53rd at Third and 885 Third Avenue, is an office tower on Third Avenue between 53rd and 54th streets in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was completed in 1986, rises 453 feet (138 m) and has 34 floors. John Burgee and Philip Johnson designed it for Hines Interests, and it was the first New York City project of developer Gerald D. Hines. Its nickname comes from a shape and color that resemble a lipstick tube.
Above the 19th and 27th stories the tower steps back, and it is topped by a two-story granite penthouse; its massing is nearly elliptical. In fact it is polygonal, with over a hundred sides on the base and on each setback section. It stands on double-height columns at its base, and the facade is red Imperial granite and stainless steel. A nine-story rectangular annex adjoins the northeast side.
A central core and a tube support system, both by structural engineer Irwin Cantor, help the building resist winds from the north. In 1981 Hines Interests purchased the site from Citigroup and engaged Burgee and Johnson for an elliptical office tower. Work began in May 1984 and ended two years afterward. Part of the rentable space was granted in return for upgrading the Lexington Avenue/51st Street station.
How it prints
Make this print opens the generator on a 600 m square around the landmark. Buildings print at close to true scale, so the landmark grows with the print size.
| Print size | Landmark height | Scale |
|---|---|---|
| 160 mm default | 38 mm | 1:3,750 |
| 200 mm | 47 mm | 1:3,000 |
| 256 mm | 60 mm | 1:2,344 |
-
North
-
East
-
South
-
West
- Smooth oval sides
- The tower is rounded, with fine horizontal banding all the way up. A layer height of 0.12–0.16 mm keeps the curves smooth, and a larger print keeps the bands.
- Setbacks and rounded crown
- The sides step in twice and end in an oval cap. Print friendly adapts these small steps to the print scale; Full detail keeps them on larger prints.
- One piece with the ground
- The Lipstick Building is joined to the ground in the exported file, and the four-side check found no floating parts, so nothing needs gluing.
- Pick the detail for your nozzle
- In the Buildings settings, set Landmark detail to Print friendly to adapt thin parts and small details to the print scale. Full detail keeps every modeled feature, for larger prints or a finer nozzle.
- Colors
- Buildings, roads, water and ground arrive as separate filament slots in the 3MF. The Lipstick Building takes the building color.
- File format
- You get a 3MF for Bambu Studio, OrcaSlicer or PrusaSlicer. Any of them can save it as STL if you need one.
About this model
The Lipstick Building is one of more than 2,300 landmark models in Mini Skyline. They are made with AI, and each one is checked from four sides in its real surroundings before release. Everything around it is built from OpenStreetMap and Overture map data. If you would rather print the shape from map data, turn off Landmark models in the Buildings settings.
Common questions
Is there a Lipstick Building STL I can download?
Mini Skyline builds the file for you in your browser and exports 3MF, which every major slicer opens. If you need an STL, open the 3MF in your slicer and export it from there.
How big can I print it?
Any print size from 40 mm across. The Lipstick Building grows with the print: about 38 mm tall on the default 160 mm print. For a model larger than your printer bed, Project Mode splits the area into tiles.
Is it free?
Yes. Generation runs in your browser, with no account and nothing behind a paywall.
