This is a picture of the MetLife Tower with the lights on changing it view of NYC.
Ross Barnes
12/19/12
Professor Gold
The Life of A tower: The MetLife Tower
The Metropolitan Life Insurance tower also known as the met life tower is located on Madison Avenue across from Madison square garden. Designed by Napoleon Lebrun & sons it became the tallest building in the world until the completion of the Woolworth building in 1913. The tower of the building was built after the initial building. Currently the tower is being converted into the New York Edition hotel.
The Metropolitan Life tower, a fifty story building was not always the building that we see today. Today we see the met life tower and see a tall building that casts a shadow over much of New York. Once one of the tallest buildings in New York the met life building has seen its days of praise, thanks to the Architect Pierre L. Lebrun of Napoleon Lebrun & Sons. Although not much was known about Lebrun it is known that the influence in his work of the MetLife tower and his other buildings come from many abroad trips to different parts of the world. Using classical techniques in the proportions of the tower Lebrun was able to create a building with class and etiquette, which stands out from the other buildings of New York City. The feel of the building gives a historical vibe from the ornamental detail that resided in the outside details of the building. Combining this with the practical use of the space inside as office space, Lebrun can count this one as a success. The tower is almost completely identical on each side of the building; it was this uniformity that gave the building its own personality using the detailed structure that broke though the horizon of the city. Although structurally speaking the building was very similar to all other building in NYC at the time the sheer size of the building footprint and frame was enough to bring forth attention from every magazine and newspaper in the city due to the fact that the completion of this building meant the completion of the world’s tallest building. Using not so innovative but unique methods of fire proofing Lebrun encased all steel member of the structure in concrete and then packed them with wooden forms to eliminate any air space hoping to prevent any fire from leaking through.
In a look back the ornamental décor of the building was inspired by the Willard Collection. Using his extensive knowledge of the collection and the historical background gained from his father’s company LeBrun was a clear choice when it came to the designs of the MetLife tower. LeBrun indicates that the resolve of a skyscraper depends on the utilization of the many elements that take part in the ultimate creation of said building. Lebrun understood this very thing and clearly showed that through careful consideration and proper etiquette he would be able to construct a master piece that stood unchallenged for three years in history as the tallest building in the world. LeBrun justifies his sizing of the structure as being proportionate to the width of the tower. The height of the tower compared to the width of any adjacent towers reflected on the overall design of the building causing alarm for the need for the extra height pushing the building past what was never done before making it a tall building. The renovation changed the tower forever. In 1960-64 the renovation of the MetLife tower was overseen by Lloyd Morgan and Eugene V. Meroni. Changing the building was a new approach that looked at as a modernization of the building, which can only improve on the overall quality of the building itself.
The MetLife Tower in its original construction had the spacious Madison Square Park which provided the companies with its home office complex. The park was included in the 1811 map of Manhattan over 180 years ago. Although it still exists its not the size it used to be. About two hundred and thirty nine acres was available for this park but now it’s a mere seven acres. Even though its size shrunk and became less known its history made it a place where it is rich in civic, military, social, and cultural history.
Le Bruns used many of the sites around the area like the park. By him re-organizing the ground floor and adding a two story pavilioned mansard, he was able to establish a strong symmetry in characteristics. In 1890 Metropolitan Life purchased the site at 1 Madison Avenue, then so far uptown that no office building had yet been constructed there. This eleven-story office block had a delicately carved style of Italian Renaissance motifs which changed the reveals and spandrels of windows and doorways. This new building, on its corner site opposite Madison Square Park, did much to establish Metropolitan Life in the eyes of the public.
Begun in 1952, Morgan & Meroni’s reconstruction of the home office complex or south building as it is now called, and the tower, took place in three stages. The northeastern piece, from the tower to the corner of Park Avenue and 23rd Street, for the most part following the system of internal light courts. The southwestern portion and the tower. Business continued in the old spaces before demolition and in the new as they became accessible. The new home office is a fourteen-story, steel structure with setbacks, faced with limestone. Though conservative in its conception, Lloyd Morgan’s design draws upon aspects of the Modern. The symmetry of the building’s mass and its window bays and entrances, as well as the tenets of the International Style.
In plan the tower retains its 75 by 85 foot construction. The fifty-story Metropolitan Life tower remains viewed in the conventional manner. Base, shaft, and capital and from within the capital rises a setback capped with a pyramid, and lantern. The tower’s new two story base works with the adjacent new home office building. A polished, light gray granite water table an extension of the new building’s wall base runs the widths of both the tower’s Madison Avenue and East 24th Street elevations and is adjacent with the tower’s limestone cladding.
Two elements characterize the tower’s four shaft elevations, the three bays of triple window openings contained within the simple corner reveals and the monumental clock faces. The shaft’s dominant vertical member is modified by the continuing projecting of window sills every second story on only the uneven stories, starting at the third story.
LeBrun’s ornamental detail is around the four monumental clock faces. The decorative pieces each contain a shell supported by a pair of reversed dolphins. The clock dials are encircled by marble wreaths of fruits and flowers, ornament which Pierre LeBrun modelled after early Italian Renaissance the Delia Robbias or Desiderio di Settignano. The dials themselves are reinforced concrete slabs, almost twenty-seven feet in diameter and faced with vitreous turquoise blue and white mosaic tile. The blue tiles create a decorative corona at the center and a border just inside the minute marks.
In a look back the ornamental décor of the building was inspired by the Willard Collection. Using his extensive knowledge of the collection and the historical background gained from his father’s company LeBrun was a clear choice when it came to the designs of the MetLife tower. LeBrun indicates that the resolve of a skyscraper depends on the utilization of the many elements that take part in the ultimate creation of said building. LeBrun understood this very thing and clearly showed that through careful consideration and proper etiquette he would be able to construct a master piece that stood unchallenged for three years in history as the tallest building in the world. LeBrun justifies his sizing of the structure as being proportionate to the width of the tower. The height of the tower compared to the width of any adjacent towers reflected on the overall design of the building causing alarm for the need for the extra height pushing the building past what was never done before making it a tall building. The renovation changed the tower forever. In 1960-64 the renovation of the MetLife tower was overseen by Lloyd Morgan and Eugene V. Meroni. Changing the building was a new approach that looked at as a modernization of the building, which can only improve on the overall quality of the building itself.
The MetLife Tower in its original construction had the spacious Madison Square Park which provided the companies with its home office complex. The park was included in the 1811 map of manhatten over 180 years ago. Although it still exists it’s not the size it used to be. About two hundred and thirty nine acres was available for this park but now it’s a mere seven acres. Even though its size shrunk and became less known its history made it a place where it is rich in civic, military, social, and cultural history.
Le Bruns used many of the sites around the area like the park. By him re-organizing the ground floor and adding a two story pavilioned mansard, he was able to establish a strong symmetry in characteristics. In 1890 Metropolitan Life purchased the site at 1 Madison Avenue, then so far uptown that no office building had yet been constructed there. This eleven-story office block had a delicately carved style of Italian Renaissance motifs which changed the reveals and spandrels of windows and doorways. This new building, on its corner site opposite Madison Square Park, did much to establish Metropolitan Life in the eyes of the public.
Begun in 1952, Morgan & Meroni’s reconstruction of the home office complex, or south building as it is now called, and the tower, took place in three stages. The northeastern piece, from the tower to the corner of Park Avenue and 23rd Street, for the most part following the system of internal light courts. The southwestern portion and the tower. Business continued in the old spaces before demolition and in the new as they became accessible. The new home office is a fourteen-story, steel structure with setbacks, faced with limestone. Though conservative in its conception, Lloyd Morgan’s design draws upon aspects of the Modern. The symmetry of the building’s mass and its window bays and entrances, as well as the tenets of the International Style.
In plan the tower retains its 75 by 85 foot construction. The fifty-story Metropolitan Life tower remains viewed in the conventional manner. Base, shaft, and capital and from within the capital rises a setback capped with a pyramid, and lantern. The tower’s new two story base works with the adjacent new home office building. A polished, light gray granite water table an extension of the new building’s wall base runs the widths of both the tower’s Madison Avenue and East 24th Street elevations and is adjacent with the tower’s limestone cladding.
Two elements characterize the tower’s four shaft elevations, the three bays of triple window openings contained within the simple corner reveals and the monumental clock faces. The shaft’s dominant vertical member is modified by the continuing projecting of window sills every second story on only the uneven stories, starting at the third story.
The MetLife Building is a unique building in its construction. Using LeBrun’s designs and his innovative ideas, architects all over NYC are able to improve on his original design. Even though many taller buildings were built in place of the met life building none of them could top what LeBrun did in 1907. His designs were clearly much more advanced due to training in other countries, and they will never be forgotten.
Books:
Manhattan skyscrapers / Eric P. Nash ; photographs by Norman McGrath.- MetLife tower
Guide to Contemporary New York City Architecture By John Hill
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/06/nyregion/hilfiger-plans-a-manhattan-hotel.html?_r=0
