MetLife Building
Facade
### Facade

[left\|200px\|thumb\|East facade from 44th Street](/wiki/File:MetLife_Building.jpg "MetLife Building.jpg")
The facade of the first two stories and mezzanines is clad with granite, aluminum, marble, and stainless steel with glass windows. On Depew Place, an alley running below the eastern leg of the Park Avenue Viaduct, fifteen loading docks were constructed for trucks to conduct deliveries and loading. On the Vanderbilt Avenue side, a marquee was installed over the entrance in the 1980s. The third through seventh stories are exclusively sheathed in granite, with window inserts. The eighth and ninth floors, which are slightly set back, are clad in aluminum.

The 10th through 59th stories of the MetLife Building contain one of the first [precast concrete](/wiki/Precast_concrete "Precast concrete") exterior walls in a building in New York City. The building includes about nine thousand light\-tan precast concrete [Mo\-Sai](/wiki/Mo-Sai "Mo-Sai") panels, each of which surrounds a window measuring  wide by  high. The panels themselves measure  wide by  high and weigh . Each panel is coated with a quartz aggregate to give texture to the facade. Vertical concrete [mullions](/wiki/Mullion "Mullion") project about  from the facade, separating the panels on every story. Flat concrete [spandrels](/wiki/Spandrel "Spandrel") separate the windows between stories. Though Walter Gropius had considered a precast concrete facade to be more solid than a glass curtain wall, this only made the building appear bulkier. Furthermore, the appearance of concrete degraded over time; this effect could be seen in structures such as the [Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum](/wiki/Solomon_R._Guggenheim_Museum "Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum") but was more pronounced on the MetLife Building's facade. During the building's construction, the manufacturer of the Mo\-Sai panels declared bankruptcy, forcing Diesel Construction to buy out that company to prevent delays in construction.

The facade is recessed at the 21st and 46th stories, where there is mechanical space. These recesses create the impression of deep shadows. Both mechanical stories are surrounded by a [colonnade](/wiki/Colonnade "Colonnade") of columns, which are spaced  apart on centers. The precast concrete curtain wall is recessed behind the columns.

The MetLife Building originally bore  "Pan Am" displays on its north and south facades and  globe logos on the east and west facades. This was swapped with [neon](/wiki/Neon "Neon") "MetLife" displays to the north and south in 1992\. These displays were changed again in 2017, being replaced with [LED](/wiki/Light-emitting_diode "Light-emitting diode") letters to conserve energy. The Pan Am Building was the last tall tower erected in New York City before laws were enacted preventing corporate logos and names on the tops of buildings. Modern New York City building code prohibits logos from being more than  above the curb or occupying over  on a blockfront. The sign replacements had been permitted because the city government considered the new signs to be an "uninterrupted continuation of a use" that was allowed before the zoning laws were changed.


How can cities balance the need for corporate branding with zoning regulations?