MetLife Building
Introduction


The **MetLife Building** (also **200 Park Avenue** and formerly the **Pan Am Building**) is a [skyscraper](/wiki/Skyscraper "Skyscraper") at [Park Avenue](/wiki/Park_Avenue "Park Avenue") and [45th Street](/wiki/45th_Street_%28Manhattan%29 "45th Street (Manhattan)"), north of [Grand Central Terminal](/wiki/Grand_Central_Terminal "Grand Central Terminal"), in the [Midtown Manhattan](/wiki/Midtown_Manhattan "Midtown Manhattan") neighborhood of [New York City](/wiki/New_York_City "New York City"), United States. Designed in the [International style](/wiki/International_Style_%28architecture%29 "International Style (architecture)") by Richard Roth, [Walter Gropius](/wiki/Walter_Gropius "Walter Gropius"), and [Pietro Belluschi](/wiki/Pietro_Belluschi "Pietro Belluschi") and completed in 1962, the MetLife Building is  tall with 59 stories. It was advertised as the world's largest commercial office space by square footage at its opening, with  of usable office space. , the MetLife Building remains one of the 100 [tallest buildings in the United States](/wiki/Tallest_buildings_in_the_United_States "Tallest buildings in the United States").

The MetLife Building contains an elongated octagonal [massing](/wiki/Massing "Massing") with the longer axis perpendicular to Park Avenue. The building sits atop two levels of railroad tracks leading into Grand Central Terminal. The facade is one of the first precast concrete exterior walls in a building in New York City. In the lobby is a pedestrian passage to Grand Central's [Main Concourse](/wiki/Main_Concourse "Main Concourse"), a lobby with artwork, and a parking garage at the building's base. The roof also contained a heliport that operated briefly during the 1960s and 1970s. The MetLife Building's design has been widely criticized since it was proposed, largely due to its location next to Grand Central Terminal.

Proposals for a skyscraper to replace Grand Central Terminal were announced in 1954 to raise money for the [New York Central Railroad](/wiki/New_York_Central_Railroad "New York Central Railroad") and [New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad](/wiki/New_York%2C_New_Haven_and_Hartford_Railroad "New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad"), the financially struggling railroads that operated the terminal. Subsequently, plans were announced for what later became the MetLife Building, to be built behind the terminal rather than in place of it. Work on the project, initially known as Grand Central City, started in 1959 and the building was formally opened on March 7, 1963\. At its opening, the building was named for [Pan American World Airways](/wiki/Pan_Am "Pan Am"), for which it served as headquarters. The [Metropolitan Life Insurance Company](/wiki/Metropolitan_Life_Insurance_Company "Metropolitan Life Insurance Company") (MetLife) bought the Pan Am Building in 1981 and used it as their headquarters before selling the building in 2005\. The MetLife Building has been renovated several times, including in the mid\-1980s, early 2000s, and late 2010s.


How tall is the MetLife Building?