Metropolitan Life North Building

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Information
Metropolitan Life North Building
Location	Midtown Manhattan, New York City, USA
Status	Complete
Constructed	1928–1950
Roof	137.5 m
Floor count	30

The Metropolitan Life North Building is a 30-story art deco skyscraper in South Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Its address is 11-25 Madison Avenue. It borders East 24th Street, East 25th Street, Madison Avenue, and Park Avenue South. It replaced the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, which was designed by McKim, Mead and White and had been completed only thirteen years before. It contains a New York City Subway station.

The building was designed in the 1920s by Harvey Wiley Corbett as a 100-story skyscraper that would be taller than the Empire State Building. However, due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929, the construction was halted at floor 29 in 1933. There is some speculation as to whether MetLife really intended to finish the 100-story tower, but the existing building was obviously constructed to be strong enough to support it. Currently, however, there are no known plans to "finish" the building.

The building as it exists today was finally completed in 1950. It is finished on the outside with Alabama limestone and marble detailing, and marble in the lobbies. The building contains 30 elevators, enough to serve the originally-planned 100 floors. Since the building now only contains 30 floors, there is often no wait for elevators in the building, making it very attractive to potential tenants and real estate brokers. It is currently owned by Boston Properties and occupied by Credit Suisse First Boston.