Amit Khurana, one of the two partners behind the Ando building, whose seven stories will be primarily glass and Mr. Ando’s signature material, poured concrete, said that several artists had been considered for commissions but that Mr. Ando’s ideas for a gauzy, light-filled transition between interior and exterior were more in keeping with the spirit of his architecture.

“Art and architecture are often seen as very different things,” Mr. Khurana said. “I think Ando-san manages to consider both and not look at these things as separate pieces.” He added: “We also wanted to think about how we could create something that could unite the idea of public art and private art.”

The first stop on my tour took me to a luxury high rise that opened a year ago and will undoubtedly last a while, given that its 1,175 rental apartments are believed to be the most in a single tower in the country. The building, Sky, on 42nd Street at 11th Avenue, has also distinguished itself by installing the first permanent public artwork here by Yayoi Kusama, 87, an art-world titan whose pieces are in almost every important contemporary art museum in the country, as well as Europe and Asia.

The work, an imposing bronze sculpture of an eerily polka-dotted pumpkin, an alter-ego motif that has become Ms. Kusama’s calling card, was unveiled recently in the building’s motor court after workers installed it, along with two lacy white “Infinity-Net” paintings by Ms. Kusama (versions of which were for sale at Art Basel last year for $450,000 each) flanking the lobby.

“We’ve always loved Kusama and followed her,” said Mitchell Moinian, whose family developed the building. “Her work is a part of our own life.”

He said he thought of the pieces by Ms. Kusama, who spent formative years in New York in the 1950s and ’60s, as a homecoming of sorts. And, he said, as a way to distinguish the building with an artist whose work is not widely known in the United States but who carries significant critical heft.