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NYC – Grand Central Terminal and Met Life Building


Image by wallyg
Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms: 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two underground levels, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. It serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Although it has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" for a century, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central Station". Technically, that is the name of the nearby post office, as well as the name of a previous rail station on the site. Outside the station, the clock in front of the Grand Central facade facing 42nd Street contains the world’s largest example of Tiffany glass and is surrounded by sculptures carved by the John Donnelly Company of Minerva, Hercules and Mercury. For the terminal building French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was at the time of its unveiling (1914) considered to be the largest sculptural group in the world. It was 48 feet (14.6 m) high, the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4 m).

The Chrysler Building, standing 1,046 feet high on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000 foot threshold. Despite being overtaken by the Empire State Building as the tallest building in the world during the 1930s, the Chrysler Building is still the tallest brick building in the world. The Chrysler Building is an example of Art Deco architecture, and the distinctive ornamentation of the tower is based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floors are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments. On the 31st floors the corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps. The lobby is similarly elegant. When the building first opened it contained a public viewing gallery near the top, which a few years later was changed into a restaurant, but neither of these enterprises was able to be financially self sustaining during the Great Depression and the former observation floor became a private club. The very top stories of the building are narrow with low sloped ceilings, designed mostly for exterior appearance with interiors useful only to hold radio broadcasting and other mechanical and electrical equipment.

The 808 foot tall (246.6m), 58-floor, 2.8 million ft² Met Life Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963. Pan American World Airways was the building’s owner for many years. Its logotype was depicted on a sign that was placed on the north and south faces and its globe logo was depicted on a sign that was placed on the east and west faces. In 1981, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased the building from Pan Am. When Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, MetLife replaced the Pan Am logos with its own, renaming the building the MetLife Building. This name is also informally held by the MetLife Tower. In 2005, MetLife sold the building for .72 billion, the highest recorded price for an office building in the United States. The buyer was a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, and the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System. The building was also known for its helicopter service to JFK International Airport, a seven-minute flight that left from the rooftop helipad. This service was offered only between 1965 and 1968 and for a few months in 1977 and was ended after a spectacular accident that killed five people. On May 16, 1977, a broken landing gear caused a parked Sikorsky S-61L with rotors still turning to tip over, killing four people who were outside the helicopter waiting to board, including exploitation filmmaker Michael Findlay. Part of a rotor blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison and 43rd street. Two other people were seriously injured. Another notorious moment in the building’s history was Eli M. Black’s spectacular suicide on February 3, 1975. The CEO of United Brands Company (now Chiquita Brands International) used his briefcase to shatter an external window and then jumped out of the forty-four story window to his death on Park Avenue. The building’s most famous "residents" are a pair of Peregrine Falcons nicknamed Lois and Clark who nest there and dine on the pigeons. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the assistance of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, the Pan Am Building is an example of a Brutalist or International style skyscraper. It is purely commercial in design with large floors, simple massing, and an absence of luxurious detailing inside or out. Although disliked by architecture critics and many New Yorkers, it has been popular with tenants, not least because of its location next to Grand Central Terminal. While condemned by some, many of the most influential architects of the twentieth century have commended the MetLife Building since its completion. With a shape similar to that of Pirelli Tower in Milan, MetLife is subtle while unique in its lozenge shape, in affect referencing its monumental position. Set apart from many of its contemporaries, MetLife has a heavy pre-cast facade that might have appealed to those looking for an historicist design.

In 2007, the Chrysler Building was ranked #9 on the AIA 150 America’s Favorite Architecture list. Grand Central Station was ranked #13.

Grand Central Terminal National Regsiter #75001206
Chrysler Building National Register #76001237

For more details on the Grand Central Terminal Main Concourse, see this picture.

NYC – Grand Central Terminal, MetLife Building and Chrysler Building


Image by wallyg
Grand Central Terminal (GCT) is the largest train station in the world by number of platforms: 44, with 67 tracks along them. They are on two underground levels, with 41 tracks on the upper level and 26 on the lower. It serves commuters traveling on the Metro-North Railroad to Westchester, Putnam, and Dutchess counties in New York State, and Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. Although it has been properly called "Grand Central Terminal" for a century, many people continue to refer to it as "Grand Central Station". Technically, that is the name of the nearby post office, as well as the name of a previous rail station on the site. Outside the station, the clock in front of the Grand Central facade facing 42nd Street contains the world’s largest example of Tiffany glass and is surrounded by sculptures carved by the John Donnelly Company of Minerva, Hercules and Mercury. For the terminal building French sculptor Jules-Alexis Coutan created what was at the time of its unveiling (1914) considered to be the largest sculptural group in the world. It was 48 feet (14.6 m) high, the clock in the center having a circumference of 13 feet (4 m).

The Chrysler Building, standing 1,046 feet high on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue, was the first structure in the world to surpass the 1,000 foot threshold. Despite being overtaken by the Empire State Building as the tallest building in the world during the 1930s, the Chrysler Building is still the tallest brick building in the world. The Chrysler Building is an example of Art Deco architecture, and the distinctive ornamentation of the tower is based on features that were then being used on Chrysler automobiles. The corners of the 61st floors are graced with eagles, replicas of the 1929 Chrysler hood ornaments. On the 31st floors the corner ornamentation are replicas of the 1929 Chrysler radiator caps. The lobby is similarly elegant. When the building first opened it contained a public viewing gallery near the top, which a few years later was changed into a restaurant, but neither of these enterprises was able to be financially self sustaining during the Great Depression and the former observation floor became a private club. The very top stories of the building are narrow with low sloped ceilings, designed mostly for exterior appearance with interiors useful only to hold radio broadcasting and other mechanical and electrical equipment.

The 808 foot tall (246.6m), 58-floor, 2.8 million ft² Met Life Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963. Pan American World Airways was the building’s owner for many years. Its logotype was depicted on a sign that was placed on the north and south faces and its globe logo was depicted on a sign that was placed on the east and west faces. In 1981, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased the building from Pan Am. When Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, MetLife replaced the Pan Am logos with its own, renaming the building the MetLife Building. This name is also informally held by the MetLife Tower. In 2005, MetLife sold the building for .72 billion, the highest recorded price for an office building in the United States. The buyer was a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, and the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System. The building was also known for its helicopter service to JFK International Airport, a seven-minute flight that left from the rooftop helipad. This service was offered only between 1965 and 1968 and for a few months in 1977 and was ended after a spectacular accident that killed five people. On May 16, 1977, a broken landing gear caused a parked Sikorsky S-61L with rotors still turning to tip over, killing four people who were outside the helicopter waiting to board, including exploitation filmmaker Michael Findlay. Part of a rotor blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison and 43rd street. Two other people were seriously injured. Another notorious moment in the building’s history was Eli M. Black’s spectacular suicide on February 3, 1975. The CEO of United Brands Company (now Chiquita Brands International) used his briefcase to shatter an external window and then jumped out of the forty-four story window to his death on Park Avenue. The building’s most famous "residents" are a pair of Peregrine Falcons nicknamed Lois and Clark who nest there and dine on the pigeons. Designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the assistance of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, the Pan Am Building is an example of a Brutalist or International style skyscraper. It is purely commercial in design with large floors, simple massing, and an absence of luxurious detailing inside or out. Although disliked by architecture critics and many New Yorkers, it has been popular with tenants, not least because of its location next to Grand Central Terminal. While condemned by some, many of the most influential architects of the twentieth century have commended the MetLife Building since its completion. With a shape similar to that of Pirelli Tower in Milan, MetLife is subtle while unique in its lozenge shape, in affect referencing its monumental position. Set apart from many of its contemporaries, MetLife has a heavy pre-cast facade that might have appealed to those looking for an historicist design.

In 2007, the Chrysler Building was ranked #9 on the AIA 150 America’s Favorite Architecture list. Grand Central Station was ranked #13.

Grand Central Terminal National Regsiter #75001206
Chrysler Building National Register #76001237

For more details on the Grand Central Terminal Main Concourse, see this picture.

NYC: Met Life Building


Image by wallyg
The 808 foot tall (246.6m), 58-floor, 2.8 million ft² Met Life Building, formerly the Pan Am Building, was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963. Pan American World Airways was the building’s owner for many years. Its logotype was depicted on a sign that was placed on the north and south faces and its globe logo was depicted on a sign that was placed on the east and west faces. In 1981, the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company purchased the building from Pan Am. When Pan Am ceased operations in 1991, MetLife replaced the Pan Am logos with its own, renaming the building the MetLife Building. This name is also informally held by the MetLife Tower. In 2005, MetLife sold the building for .72 billion, the highest recorded price for an office building in the United States. The buyer was a joint venture of Tishman Speyer Properties, the New York City Employees’ Retirement System, and the New York City Teachers’ Retirement System.

The building was also known for its helicopter service to JFK International Airport, a seven-minute flight that left from the rooftop helipad. This service was offered only between 1965 and 1968 and for a few months in 1977 and was ended after a spectacular accident that killed five people. On May 16, 1977, a broken landing gear caused a parked Sikorsky S-61L with rotors still turning to tip over, killing four people who were outside the helicopter waiting to board, including exploitation filmmaker Michael Findlay. Part of a rotor blade sailed over the side of the building and killed a pedestrian on the corner of Madison and 43rd street. Two other people were seriously injured. Another notorious moment in the building’s history was Eli M. Black’s spectacular suicide on February 3, 1975. The CEO of United Brands Company (now Chiquita Brands International) used his briefcase to shatter an external window and then jumped out of the forty-four story window to his death on Park Avenue. The building’s most famous "residents" are a pair of Peregrine Falcons nicknamed Lois and Clark who nest there and dine on the pigeons.

Designed by Emery Roth & Sons with the assistance of Walter Gropius and Pietro Belluschi, the Pan Am Building is an example of a Brutalist or International style skyscraper. It is purely commercial in design with large floors, simple massing, and an absence of luxurious detailing inside or out. Although disliked by architecture critics and many New Yorkers, it has been popular with tenants, not least because of its location next to Grand Central Terminal.

While condemned by some, many of the most influential architects of the twentieth century have commended the MetLife Building since its completion. With a shape similar to that of Pirelli Tower in Milan, MetLife is subtle while unique in its lozenge shape, in affect referencing its monumental position. Set apart from many of its contemporaries, MetLife has a heavy pre-cast facade that might have appealed to those looking for an historicist design.