MetLife Building

Manhattan, United States

Exterior only

Visible from the street; the inside is private.

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The MetLife Building, a 246-meter-tall skyscraper completed in 1962 at Park Avenue and 45th Street in Midtown Manhattan, was designed in the International style by Richard Roth, Walter Gropius, and Pietro Belluschi. Originally known as the Pan Am Building when it opened on March 7, 1963, the structure was advertised as the world's largest commercial office space, containing 2.4 million square feet of usable office area across 59 stories. Its distinctive elongated octagonal massing sits atop two levels of railroad tracks serving Grand Central Terminal, to which it connects via a pedestrian passage in its lobby. Notable for its facade of precast concrete—among the first of its kind in New York City—the building housed a rooftop heliport during the 1960s and briefly in 1977. MetLife Insurance Company purchased the building in 1981 and held it as headquarters before selling in 2005. Since its controversial opening, the building has undergone multiple renovations and remains among the 100 tallest buildings in the United States.