Talk:Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:23, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Architect?
Who designed it? Article and building infobox seem lacking. doncram (talk) 20:36, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Madison Square Garden?
I wonder if the tower's architecture was meant to be a nod to the second Madison Square Garden... 198.151.130.69 (talk) 04:30, 17 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Could be. MSG II was still there at the time the Met Life Tower was built.  Stanford White modeled the MSG tower after the Giralda, the bell tower of the Cathedral in Seville, while LeBrun & Sons modeled the Met Life Tower after St Mark's Campanile in Venice. Maybe they thought that using another reference to a European architectural landmark would resonate with the existing building. I haven't read anything specific that said that, though. Beyond My Ken (talk) 05:01, 17 December 2010 (UTC)

Architectural style:	Gothic???
It's not gothic at all. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.10.239.107 (talk) 17:39, 15 June 2012 (UTC)
 * That is correct, I'm not sure where that came from, I've corrected it to "Italiam Renaissance Revival". Beyond My Ken (talk) 20:51, 15 June 2012 (UTC)

Should the image be replaced?
Since someone is reverting my changes, I want to see if we can reach a consensus. Should a new image or an old image be at the top of the page? I seriously don't think it reflects what it looks like today or that it exists in the year 2013, it's just there because it works, which I think is more of a reason not to care if it's replaced with a better image.RocketLauncher2 (talk) 18:54, 11 June 2013 (UTC)
 * A new image would be better - but not one that only shows trees and blue sky. Compared to that, the old image is better. --Albinfo (talk) 07:48, 13 June 2013 (UTC)
 * I think part of the reason for that is the area's changed in the past 100 years so there's more things around it, more of a reason I want to update it
 * What about https://pt.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ficheiro:Metropolitan_Life_Tower_April_2008.jpg ? RocketLauncher2 (talk) 14:44, 13 June 2013 (UTC)

External links modified (January 2018)
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 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071020225524/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceID=1773&resourceType=Building to http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceId=1773&ResourceType=Building
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110517154151/http://www.observer.com/2007/clock-tower-five-madison-goes-200-m to http://www.observer.com/2007/clock-tower-five-madison-goes-200-m
 * Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20071020225524/http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceID=1773&resourceType=Building to http://tps.cr.nps.gov/nhl/detail.cfm?ResourceID=1773&resourceType=Building

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New York 2140?
Isn't this the tower that features in Robinson's novel? It's a finalist for the Hugo Award in 2018.Pkeets (talk) 13:21, 21 June 2018 (UTC)

In popular culture
Moved here, because only two list entries have sources. epicgenius (talk) 18:52, 12 March 2020 (UTC)


 * The tower appears prominently in the first part of the "Darkness and Dawn" science fiction trilogy from the 1910s written by George Allen England. The tower is the temporary home of the two remaining post-apocalyptic survivors Allan Stern and Beatrice Kendrick.
 * The tower is mentioned in W.E.B. Dubois's 1920 short story "The Comet" where the main characters Jim and Julia look out over the city.
 * The clock tower is mentioned in the opening of Murray Leinster's 1919 story "The Runaway Skyscraper," the clock running backwards indicating that the skyscraper was traveling in time.
 * In the animated TV series Futurama, the tower is seen in the future as wider and its face replaced with a digital clock.
 * In the video game BioShock Infinite, the building is the location of Booker DeWitt's office.
 * In Christopher Morley's 1919 book "The Haunted Bookshop" character Aubrey Gilbert "could see the ruby beacon on the Metropolitan Tower signal three quarters."
 * In Kim Stanley Robinson's 2017 book "New York 2140", several characters live in the building and plot events occur in the building.
 * In Antti Tuuri's 2005 book Taivaanraapijat, a young Finnish migrant gets hired to build the tower.
 * The tower is one of only two visible structures besides the Empire State Building in Andy Warhol's eight-hour film Empire, and the flashing of the time beacon on top of the tower every 15 minutes is one of the few concrete events in the film.