MetLife Building

The MetLife Building is an International Style skyscraper designed between 1958 and 1959 by Emery Roth & Sons, with Richard Roth as lead architect, in association with Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, and built between 1960 and 1963 in New York, NY.

MetLife Building is not the only name you might know this building by though. It is common for companies to want to attach their names to iconic buildings when they move in, or for the general public to come up with nicknames, and this one is no exception. The building has changed names several times over the years, and is also known as:

• Pan Am Building between 1963 and 1981.
• 200 Park Avenue between 1991 and 1992.

Its precise street address is 200 Park Avenue, New York, NY. You can also find it on the map here.

The MetLife Building has received multiple architecture awards for its architectural design since 1963. The following is a list of such prizes and awards:

• NYCxDESIGN Awards in 2022
• New York Design Awards Interior Desing in 2022

The building is built over two underground levels of train tracks that end at Grand Central Terminal. The lobby of the building also connects to the lobby of Grand Centra Station through a pedestrain walkway.

There used to be a heliport at the rooftop that was operational from 1960 until 1977, when it was closed after an accident.

The building has been restored 3 times over the years to ensure its conservation and adaptation to the pass of time. The main restoration works happened in 1987, 2002 and 2022.

Emery Roth & Sons, with Richard Roth as the lead architect, was the architecture firm in charge of the architectural design, in association with Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi.

That being said, architecture is a complex discipline involving many professionals from different fields, without whom this building would have not been possible. We will surely be leaving out a lot of names here, but here is a list of the people we do know also played their part in making the MetLife Building a reality:

• James Ruderman in charge of Structural Engineering
• Diesel Construction Company as the Main Contractor
• Erwin S. Wolfson as the Main Developer
• Jaros Baum & Bolles in charge of MEP Engineering
• Hideo Sasaki in charge of Landscape Architecture

The MetLife Building can be categorized as an International Style building.

The MetLife Building was designed in 1958. By 1958 the International Style movement had already left its early days behind and could be considered a mature movement, which does not mean it was loved and accepted by everyone, on the contrary. The International Style was accepted by the architecture community way before it was by the general public, and it is therefore likely that the MetLife Building was not well received by everyone at the time.

The MetLife Building uses a frame structure made of reinforced concrete columns and beams.

A frame structure uses a combination of beams and columns to sustain the building's weight. The walls in this case are non-load bearing, which allows for more flexibility when distributing the interior spaces.

The facade uses a non-load bearing curtain wall system. This means the curtain wall modules are anchored to the building's structural frame, typically by being attached to the edge of the floor slabs. The curtain wall system connects to the slabs using brackets, anchors, and mullions, which transfer the loads imposed by wind and temperature changes, to the building's primary structural elements.

This setup allows the curtain wall to accommodate differential movement between the facade and the structural frame, such as thermal expansion, floor deflection, or sway from wind forces. This system's integration with the slab edges also allows for continuous insulation and weatherproofing layers.

From an aesthetic point of view, the facade features light brown prefabricated concrete panels that act as spandrels, with concrete mullions that organize the grid of windows that extend all the way to the top of the building. The only exceptions happen on floors 21st and 46th. These are technical floors, and here the facade disappears leaving the structural columns exposed.