MetLife Building

MetLife Building
MetLife Building
Information
Location New York, New York USA
Status Complete
Constructed 1963
Use Office
Height
Roof 808 ft (246.6 m)
Technical details
Floor count 58
Floor area 3,140,000 sq ft (292,000 m2)
Elevator count 23
Companies
Architect Emery Roth & Sons

The MetLife Building, originally called the Pan Am Building, is a skyscraper located at 200 Park Avenue in New York City.

Contents

History

The Pan Am Building was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963.[1] It is an important part of the Manhattan skyline and one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States.

Pan American World Airways was the building's owner for many years. Its logotype was depicted on a sign that was placed on the north and south faces and its globe logo was depicted on a sign that was placed on the east and west faces. In 1981, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased the building from Pan Am. When Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, MetLife replaced the Pan Am logos on the north and south faces with its own, renaming the building the MetLife Building.[2] This name is also informally held by the MetLife Tower.

In 2005, MetLife sold the building for $1.72 billion, the highest recorded price for an office building in the United States at the time. The buyer was a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties, the New York City Employees' Retirement System, and the New York City Teachers' Retirement System.

The building was also known for its helicopter service to John F. Kennedy International Airport, a seven-minute flight that left from the rooftop helipad. This service was offered only between December 21, 1965 and February 18, 1968 by New York Airways and for a few months in 1977 and was ended after a spectacular accident that killed five people.[3][4] On May 16, 1977, a broken landing gear caused a parked Sikorsky S-61L with rotors still turning to tip over, killing four people who were outside the helicopter waiting to board, including exploitation filmmaker Michael Findlay. Part of a rotor blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison and 43rd Street. Two other people were seriously injured.[5]

Another notorious moment in the building's history was the historic suicide of Eli M. Black (the father of Leon Black) on February 3, 1975. The CEO of United Brands Company (now Chiquita Brands International) used his briefcase to shatter an external window and then jumped out of the forty-four story window to his death on Park Avenue.

The building's most famous "residents" are a pair of Peregrine Falcons nicknamed Lois and Clark who nest there and dine on pigeons.

Architecture

Building profile, looking east up 44th Street.

Designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the assistance of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, the Pan Am Building is an example of a Brutalist or International style skyscraper. It is purely commercial in design with large floors, simple massing, and an absence of luxurious detailing inside or out. Although disliked by architecture critics and many New Yorkers, it has been popular with tenants, not least because of its location next to Grand Central Terminal.

The MetLife Building is arguably the most hated skyscraper in the city. In 1987, the lifestyle periodical New York revealed in a poll that MetLife—then Pan Am—was the building that New Yorkers would most like to see demolished. Perhaps contributing to the hatred of the building is the fact that it is so visible. Situated behind Grand Central Terminal outside of the grid, the building, which would have otherwise been tucked away into the city, is left totally exposed, destroying once stunning views of Grand Central and the New York Central Building (Helmsley Building) looking up Park Avenue.

While condemned by some, many of the most influential architects of the twentieth century have commended the MetLife Building since its completion. With a shape similar to that of Pirelli Tower in Milan, MetLife is subtle while unique in its lozenge shape, in effect referencing its monumental position. Set apart from many of its contemporaries, MetLife has a heavy pre-cast facade that might have appealed to those looking for a historicist design. The importance of this design and the stress placed on its subtleties may be clearer after a close look at both Gropius's other tall building projects, such as the Chicago Tribune Tower competition.

Statistics

MetLife Building as seen from the Empire State Building, 2005
Western side at viaduct level

Tenants

In addition to being the official headquarters of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, the MetLife Building houses a number of other major firms, including the headquarters of Dreyfus Corporation, the largest office of Greenberg Traurig, and the New York offices of Barclays Capital, CB Richard Ellis, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Hunton & Williams and Winston & Strawn.

Pop cultural references

As a prominent New York landmark, the Metlife Building has been featured in numerous movies, including Coogan's Bluff in which Clint Eastwood's character arrives in city by helicopter, the American version of Godzilla after Godzilla storms Grand Central Terminal, in the main titles of the HBO presentation of Angels in America, at the end of Antz, and is shown in important scenes of Catch Me if You Can whose protagonist poses as a Pan Am Pilot.

The 1968 Paramount film Only When I Larf has the female lead, Alexandra Stewart entering the Pan Am building and travelling by helicopter from the rooftop pad.

Yves Montand sang "Come Back to Me" on top of the Pan Am Building in the 1970 Barbra Streisand musical On a Clear Day You Can See Forever.

In the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV the sign on the building says "Getalife".

The movie Hackers, in a continuity error in using stock footage, shows the Pan Am logo in helicopter shots, and the MetLife logo in ground shots.

The 1973 James Bond film Live and Let Die features the PanAm Building in the opening shot following the gun barrel logo as the camera zooms into United Nations Headquarters for an assassination scene.

In the 2006 movie Superman Returns it can be seen in several shots of the Metropolis skyline.

Joni Mitchell has the line "A helicopter lands on the Pan-Am roof like a dragonfly on a tomb" in her song "Harry's House" on the The Hissing of Summer Lawns album.

References

  1. ↑ Horsley, Carter C. The MetLife Building, The Midtown Book. Accessed September 30, 2007. "When it was completed, the 2,400,000 sq ft (223,000 m2). building became the world's largest office building in bulk, a title it would lose a few years later to 55 Water Street downtown."
  2. ↑ Schneider, Daniel B. "F.Y.I.", The New York Times, January 5, 1997. Accessed September 30, 2007. "Q. I recall that it was 1963 when the huge Pan Am letters were put atop what is now the Met Life building and that it was 1992 when they were taken down.... A. Most of the letters and the accompanying logos did not survive removal; exceptions are in warehouses.... The letters, each about 15 feet (4.6 m) tall, and the logos -- 25-foot (7.6 m)-wide globes -- had to be cut into sections and pulled up onto the roof by technicians from Universal Unlimited, who built and installed their replacements, the Met Life signs."
  3. ↑ Schneider, Daniel B. "F.Y.I.", July 25, 1999. Accessed September 30, 2007. "Q. Back in the 1960's and 70's, helicopters bound for Kennedy International Airport used to take off from a deck atop the old Pan Am Building. Why was the service halted? A. As many as 360 helicopter flights a day were planned by New York Airways after the 59-story Pan Am building was completed in 1963, but a bitter public outcry delayed the first few flights until Dec. 21, 1965.... The operation proved unprofitable, however, since the helicopters carried an average of only eight passengers, and the heliport, which had cost $1 million to build, closed in 1968.... After another round of hearings -- and renewed protests -- flights resumed in February 1977. Three months later, the landing gear on one of the Sikorsky S-61 helicopters collapsed while passengers were boarding, flipping it on its side and sending a 20-foot rotor blade skidding across the roof and over the west parapet wall.... Within hours, the heliport was closed indefinitely."
  4. ↑ Hudson, Edward. "Helicopter Service From Roof Of Pan Am Building Suspended; PAN AM SUSPENDS COPTER SERVICES", The New York Times, February 19, 1968. Accessed September 30, 2007. "Helicopter operations from the 59-story roof of the Pan Am Building were suspended last night as a result of a dispute over the future financial support of the operation by Pan American World Airways."
  5. ↑ NTSB. Aircraft Accident Report - New York Airways, Inc., Sikorsky S-61L, N619PA Pan Am Building Heliport, New York, New York, May 16, 1977. (PDF)

See also

External links