Although the New York City government gave Seagram & Sons an award in 1963 for the building's "notable contribution" to the city, it also raised the company's property taxes the same year. The recalculated tax assessment of $21 million was based on potential value if the building were to be demolished, whereas Seagram fought to keep the assessment at $17 million, based on rental income. The higher tax assessment was upheld by the New York Court of Appeals, a decision the Regional Plan Association criticized as potentially destroying "the hope of great commercial architecture in New York State". Architectural writer Ada Louise Huxtable called the tax a beginning of the city's "architectural annihilation", as she believed the higher tax assessment was a "special method of taxing architectural excellence".