Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower was the world's tallest building from 1909 to 1913. *
Previous tallest	Singer Building
Surpassed by	Woolworth Building
Location	New York City, USA
Height (m)	213
Height (ft)	700
Stories	50
Built	1909 (base:1893)
Destroyed	n/a
* Fully habitable, self-supported, from main entrance to rooftop.

The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower (also Met Life Tower) at One Madison Avenue, New York City was the world's tallest building from 1909 to 1913, when it was surpassed by the Woolworth Building. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (823x1024, 82 KB) TITLE: Metropolitan Life Bldg. ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Link title1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... The Singer Building at Liberty Street and Broadway in Manhattan, New York was an office building completed in 1908 as the headquarters of the Singer Sewing Machine Company. ... Woolworth Building The 60-story Woolworth Building is one of the oldest – and one of the most famous – skyscrapers in New York City. ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... 1893 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... Midtown Manhattan, looking north from the Empire State Building, 2005 New York City (officially named the City of New York) is the most populous city in the United States, the most densely populated major city in North America, and is at the center of international finance, politics, entertainment, and culture. ... 1909 was a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Link title1913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. ... Woolworth Building The 60-story Woolworth Building is one of the oldest – and one of the most famous – skyscrapers in New York City. ...

The Met Life Tower as it looks today.

The tower is a later addition to the original 11-story, full-block office building (the "East Wing") that was completed in 1893. The Campanile in Venice, Italy served as an inspiration when the building was commissioned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in 1907 and serves as world headquarters of the company to this day. Napoleon Lebrun & Sons designed the 700 feet (213 m) tower with 52 floors, more than twice the height of its old world counter part, and completed the building by 1909. The completion of the Woolworth Building in 1913 ended the Met Life Tower's reign as the tallest building in the world. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1441x6219, 6448 KB) The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower in New York City. ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1441x6219, 6448 KB) The Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower in New York City. ... The Campanile from the west St Marks Campanile is the bell tower of St Marks Square in Venice. ... Location within Italy Venice (Italian: Venezia), the city of canals, is the capital of the region of Veneto and of the province of Venice, 45°26′ N 12°19′ E, population 271,663 (census estimate 2004-01-01). ... MetLife, Inc. ... 1907 was a common year starting on Tuesday (see link for calendar). ... Woolworth Building The 60-story Woolworth Building is one of the oldest – and one of the most famous – skyscrapers in New York City. ...

There are 4 clocks on each side of the building. Each clock is 26.5 feet (8 m) in diameter with each number being 4 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. Marble This page is about the metamorphic rock. ... Limey shale overlaid by limestone. ... By Region: Italian Renaissance Northern Renaissance *French Renaissance *German Renaissance *English Renaissance Tempietto, San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502 designed by Donato Bramante. ...

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 Empire State Building Entrance lobby The Empire State Building, a 102-story contemporary Art Deco style building in New York City, was designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon Associates and built in 1931. ...

In March of 2005, SL Green Realty Trust bought the tower in anticipation of converting it into apartments. The base would remain an office component, although its air rights could be bought to allow for the construction of another apartment building nearby.

North Building (11 Madison Avenue)

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.

Columbia University-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. 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 is what was to be the 32-story base for the 100-story tower. There have been proposals to add floors to this 32-floor base and to 'complete' the tower, but there are no current plans to do so. Columbia University is a private university in New York City. ... Lower Plaza at Rockefeller Center. ... 1928 was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

The primary tenant of the North Building today is the investment banking arm of Credit Suisse. The Credit Suisse Group is the second-largest financial services company in Switzerland, behind longtime rival UBS. It was founded in 1856 under the name Schweizerische Kreditanstalt (SKA, Swiss Credit Institution). ...

Photos

Wikimedia Commons has more media related to:

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower

• nycfoto.com - Photos of Metlife Tower
• nyc-architecture.com - Photos of the North Building.
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