Manhattan has The Javits Center for large exhibitions. Now, thanks to a visionary design concept, it has 340 Madison Avenue for the smaller ones. Macklowe Properties, one of New York’s eminent real estate development and management companies, recently transformed an obsolete, irregularly shaped masonry building in the heart of the midtown business district into a breathtakingly modern 750,000-square-foot glass office tower. The complex, $100 million redevelopment included a complete upgrade of the building’s infrastructure and the expansion of a small lobby into a unique and contemporary, limestone-paneled “exhibition space” with a theatrical, 18-foot ceiling and the latest in lighting effects. This key element of the design—realized through a collaborative effort by the developer and New York architectural firms Moed de Armas & Shannon, and Gensler—was the result of a goal to create a signature identity for the property. The inaugural event at the recently opened building, is an exhibit of Smart Cars—the fuel-efficient, innovatively-designed, mini auto—designed by the New York-based Graham Hanson Design. The display of Smart Cars, which is brining in visitors, as well as attention, is expected to remain throughout most of 2006. Future exhibits are under discussion.