MetLife Building (New York City, New York) | office building, skyscraper, 1963_construction, International style architecture, Modern (architecture)

 office building, skyscraper, 1963_construction, International style architecture, Modern (architecture)

808-foot, 58-story International-style office building completed in 1963. Designed by Walter Gropius, Pietro Belluschi and Emery Roth & Sons, it was originally the headquarters of PanAm Airlines, and known as the PanAm Building. This building was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963. It was surpassed in size by the World Trade Center in 1970–71 as well as 55 Water Street in 1972. It faced huge unpopularity when it was first built, and was described as an 'ugly behemoth', due to its lack of proportion and huge scale - it dwarfed the New York Central Building to the north and the Grand Central Terminal to the south. MetLife bought the building in 1981 for $400 million as an investment but didn't replace Pan Am's logo until 1993.

The building has a unique sculptural presence, with the tower having an elongated octagonal footprint. The tower sits on an 8-story base that fills the site, surrounded by the Park Avenue viaduct. The lower three levels of the base have grey stone piers dividing recessed bays. The east, west, and north facades are 14 bays wide, most of which have double-windows, although two of the bays on the east and west sides have three windows. The three bays centered under the tower portion above, and in the middle of the north facade, are further recessed at the 1st-3rd floors, where the main entrances are located. The 4th-8th floors are faced in pre-cast concrete.

The tower is supported on the base by an array of black steel columns. The 8-sided facade of the tower is faced in light-grey concrete with silver glass windows. The tower is divided into three vertical sections by two recessed floors, with the floors above carried on the piers that extend through. The penthouse level is set-back, with a flat roof above the giant, white Met Life logos that are mounted on the mechanical floor at the top.

When it was the Pan-Am building it featured daily commuter flights to and from New York's Kennedy Airport from a rooftop helipad. This was never too popular and a helicopter crash on May 16, 1977 ended the service once and for all. The 1977 helicopter crash killed five people.

A reproduction of the Josef Albers mural “Manhattan” was installed in the lobby in September 2019. Manhattan” was originally commissioned for the building, which opened in 1963 and was owned by Pan Am Airlines. When asbestos was founded behind the formica, it become damaged beyond repair though some of it was salvaged by the Albers Foundation. Those original pieces, along with documentation, became the basis for this replica. Restaurant Associates operated two restaurants in the lobby named Zum Zum and Trattoria during the 1960's.

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www.nytimes.com/2019/09/23/arts/design/josef-albers-mod...


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