| Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower | |
|---|---|
| Alternative names | Met Life Tower Metropolitan Life Tower |
| Record height | |
| Tallest in the world from 1909 to 1913[I] | |
| Preceded by | Singer Building |
| Surpassed by | Woolworth Building |
| General information | |
| Type | Commercial offices |
| Location | 1 Madison Avenue[1] Manhattan, New York City |
| Coordinates | |
| Construction started | 1893 |
| Completed | 1909 |
| Height | |
| Roof | 213.36 m (700.0 ft) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 50 |
| Design and construction | |
| Owner | El-Ad Group |
| Architect | Napoleon LeBrun & Sons |
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Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
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| Architectural style: | Gothic |
| Governing body: | Private |
| NRHP Reference#: | 78001874 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP: | January 29, 1972 |
| Designated NHL: | June 2, 1978 |
| Designated NYCL: | 1989 |
| References | |
| [2][3][4][5][6] | |
The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower, also known as the Metropolitan Life Tower or Met Life Tower, is a landmark skyscraper located on East 23rd Street between Madison Avenue and Park Avenue South, off of Madison Square Park. in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. Designed by the architectural firm of Napoleon LeBrun & Sons and built by the Hedden Construction Company, the tower is modeled after the Campanile in Venice, Italy.[7] It was constructed in 1909 and served as world headquarters of the company until 2005. It was the world's tallest building for three years, until 1913, when it was surpassed by the Woolworth Building.[8] Currently, the clock tower portion of the building has the address 5 Madison Avenue, while the remainder of the building, occupied primarily by Credit Suisse, is referred to as 1 Madison Avenue.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1978,[5][9] and a New York City landmark in 1989.[10]
At the corner of East 23rd Street and Park Avenue South, which was originally known as Fourth Avenue, the building has an entrance to the 23rd Street New York City Subway station of the number 6 line.
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The tower is a later addition to the original 11-story, full-block office building (the "East Wing") that was completed in 1893. Plans for the tower were first announced in 1905.[11]
There are four clock faces, one on each side of the tower, located from the 25th to 27th floor. Each clock face is 26.5 feet (8 m) in diameter with each number being four feet (1.2 m) tall. The minute hands each weigh half a ton. The original tower was sheathed in Tuckahoe marble, but during the 1964 renovation plain limestone was used to cover the tower and the East Wing, replacing the old Renaissance revival details with a streamlined, modern look. Much of the building's original ornamentation was removed.
A three-year exterior restoration project, which saw much of the building covered in scaffolding, ended in 2002 and added a new, computerized, multicolored nighttime lighting system, much like that of the Empire State Building; the colors change to denote particular holidays or important events. The gilded cupola at the very top of the building serves as an "eternal light" which stays illuminated even after the rest of the lighting system has been turned off for the night. The building figured prominently in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company's advertising for many years, illustrated with a light beaming from the top of its spire and the slogan, "The Light That Never Fails".
In March 2005, SL Green Realty Corp. bought the tower in anticipation of converting it into apartments. In May 2007, the tower and adjacent air rights were subsequently sold for $200 million to Africa Israel Investments,[12] which then sold it to Marriott Hotels in October 2011 for $165 million. It is thought that Marriott is targeting the site for its Edition Hotel boutique line. Prior to Marriot's purchase, Tommy Hilfiger and a partner had signed a contract to buy the building for $170 million, with the plan to transform the building into Hilfiger's first hotel, with luxury condos, but Hilfiger backed off the project in September 2011. [13]
By the late 1920s, the 1909 Met Life Tower and the 1919 North Annex were becoming too small to house the continuously growing activities of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Looking to expand, the company considered building on a full block site between East 24th and East 25th Streets.
Ecole des Beaux Arts-educated architect Harvey Wiley Corbett left his position on the Rockefeller Center design team in order to take up this project in 1928. The final design for the new building was proposed as a 100-story, telescoping tower.[14] However, the onset of the Great Depression in 1929 caused the company to scrap plans for a giant skyscraper and instead built only a portion of the proposed tower. What stands of the North Building today, completed in 1950, is what was to be the 32-story base for the 100-story tower, built with the structural strength and number of elevator shafts (30) needed for a later completion.
The primary tenant of the Metropolitan Life North Building today is the investment banking arm of Credit Suisse. Credit Suisse refers to the building as Eleven Madison Ave, or EMA.
The Metropolitan Life Home Office Complex, was added to the National Register on January 19, 1996.[6]
| Records | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Singer Building |
Tallest building in the world 1909–1913 |
Succeeded by Woolworth Building |
| Tallest building in the United States 1909–1913 |
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