Detail View: Archivision Base to Module 9: Pan Am Building

Preferred Title:	Pan Am Building
Alternate Title:	MetLife Building
Image View:	Distant aerial view, from the top of the Empire State Building, depicting the Pan Am Building in context
Creator:	Emery Roth & Sons (American architectural firm, ca. 1949-1990); Pietro Belluschi (American architect, 1899-1994); Walter Gropius (American architect, 1883-1969)
Location:	site: New York, New York, United States
Location Note:	200 Park Avenue
Date:	1962-1963 (creation)
Cultural Context:	American
Style Period:	Modernist, Modern
Work Type 1:	skyscraper
Work Type 2:	office building
Classification:	architecture
Material:	concrete; glass
Technique:	construction (assembling)
Measurements:	808 ft (height)
Subjects:	architectural exteriors; business, commerce and trade; aerial views
Description:	The Pan Am Building was the largest commercial office building in the world when it opened on March 7, 1963. It is an important part of the Manhattan skyline and one of the fifty tallest buildings in the United States. Belluschi, Dean of Architecture and Urban Planning at MIT, served as a consultant. Gropius came up with a 59-storey, east-west-aligned tower with an oblong octagonal plan. The shape, formed from pre-cast concrete elements, also resembled an airplane wing, which suited well the original owner and main tenant, the Pan American Airways. The tower is erected on an eight-storey, granite-clad base, which occupies the site between 45th Street and Grand Central Terminal, with the Park Avenue roadways passing on both sides. The concrete walls of the tower are interrupted by two colonnaded openings on the facade, at 21st and 46th floors, behind which the technical equipment is located. In 1961 a heliport was opened on the roof, adding another role for the building, as an in-city terminal for NYC airport
Collection:	Archivision Base Collection
Identifier:	1A1-GW-PA-A1
Rights:	© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.