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Photo: via Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
Since it was built it has been probably the most hated building in New York, mostly because it rises up over Grand Central Station, completely blocking the view up Park Avenue, but it is a good example of modern architecture.
The MetLife Building is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in the International style by Richard Roth, Walter Gropius, and Pietro Belluschi and completed in 1962, the MetLife Building is 808 feet (246 m) tall with 59 stories. It was advertised as the world's largest commercial office space by square footage at its opening, with 2.4 million square feet (220,000 m2) of usable office space. As of November 2022, the MetLife Building remains one of the 100 tallest buildings in the United States.
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Walk in and see the main concourse, a cavernous room often filled with people and elegantly detailed, with arched windows, a lovely clock, and an astronomical ceiling.
One of the most recognizable and favored structures of New York, the Chrysler was the world's tallest building when completed in 1930, but lost that title to the nearby Empire State Building less than a year later. But what it lost in fame it makes up for in beauty, with its gorgeous, instantly recognizable Art Deco crown.
A famous luxury hotel.
This Art Deco design classic, completed in 1930 to a design by Raymond Hood, was made famous by the Superman films; to be admired are the extreme verticality of the design, the understated setbacks and functional design. The newspaper no longer holds offices here, but the foyer is well worth a visit if passing, if only to see the newspaper's giant globe sculpture and wall weather stations.
Once J. Pierpont Morgan's private library, this building houses his art collection, a Gutenberg Bible, and a first printing of The Star Spangled Banner. The bookshelves lining the walls include books by Dante, Dickens, Einstein, Twain, and several First and Second Folios.