History
The North Building was designed in the 1920s by Harvey Wiley Corbett and D. Everett Waid as a 100-story skyscraper that would have been the tallest building in the world. However, due to the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and onset of the Depression, the construction was halted at floor 29 in 1933. There is some speculation as to whether Metropolitan Life really intended to finish the 100-story tower, but the existing building was obviously constructed to be strong enough to support it. Currently, however, there are no known plans to "finish" the building. The original plans were to include a New York City Subway station. The station is now located one block south on 23rd Street with an entrance through the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower at One Madison Avenue.
The building as it exists today, which has 2,200,000 square feet (200,000 m2) of space, was constructed in three stages, and was finally completed in 1950. It is finished on the outside with Alabama limestone and marble detailing, and marble in the lobbies. The building features four vaulted corner entrances, and its bulk is mitigated by numerous setbacks and its polygonal shape. The building contains 30 elevators, enough to serve the originally-planned 100 floors.
From 1994-1997, the building, which has served time as Met Life's records warehouse, had its interior redesigned by Haines Lundberg Waehler and the exterior renovated, all at the cost of $300 million. It is currently owned by The Sapir Organization and primarily occupied by Credit Suisse, with the Danny Meyer restaurant Eleven Madison Park occupying street-level retail space on Madison Avenue.
Read more about this topic: Metropolitan Life North Building
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