Pan Am Building
| MetLife Building | |
|---|---|
| Pan Am Building | |
MetLife Building, 2005
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| General information | |
| Type | Office |
| Location | 200 Park Avenue Manhattan, New York 10166 U.S. |
| Coordinates | 40°45′12″N 73°58′36″W / 40.75333°N 73.97667°WCoordinates: 40°45′12″N 73°58′36″W / 40.75333°N 73.97667°W |
| Construction started | 1960 |
| Completed | 1963 |
| Opening | March 7, 1963 |
| Owner | Tishman Speyer, The Irvine Company |
| Height | |
| Roof | 808 ft (246 m) |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 59 |
| Floor area | 2,841,511 sq ft (263,985.0 m2) |
| Lifts/elevators | 23 |
| Design and construction | |
| Architect | Emery Roth & Sons, Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gropius |
| Structural engineer | The Office of James Ruderman |
| References | |
The MetLife Building is a 59-story skyscraper at 200 Park Avenue at East 45th Street above Grand Central Terminal in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Built in 1960–63 as the Pan Am Building, the then-headquarters of Pan American World Airways, it was designed by Emery Roth & Sons, Pietro Belluschi and Walter Gropius in the International style. The world's largest commercial office space by square footage at its opening, it remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States.
In September 1960, Pan Am founder Juan Trippe signed a 25-year, $115,500,000 lease with the building's developer, Erwin Wolfson, allowing the airline to occupy 613,000 square feet (56,900 m2), or about 15 floors, plus a new main ticket office at 45th Street and Vanderbilt Avenue.
When it opened on March 7, 1963, the Pan Am Building (as it was known at the time) was the largest commercial office space in the world by square footage. It was initially an unpopular sight due to its lack of proportion and huge scale—it dwarfed the New York Central Building to the north and Grand Central Terminal to the south. The building was surpassed in size by the World Trade Center in 1970–71 as well as 55 Water Street in 1972.
The last tall tower erected in New York City before laws were enacted preventing corporate logos and names on the tops of buildings, it bore 15-foot-tall (5 m) "Pan Am" displays on its north and south faces and 25-foot-tall (8 m) globe logos east and west.
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