New York Life Insurance Company Building
- Architect
- Cass Gilbert
- Year
- 1928
- Style
- Gothic Revival
- City
- Manhattan, NY
- Collection
- cass gilbert’s downtown
The New York Life Building at 51 Madison Avenue is the headquarters of the New York Life Insurance Company, designed by Cass Gilbert and built in 1927–1928 on the site of the former Madison Square Garden. The tower rises 615 feet across 34 office stories, topped by a gilded, pyramidal six-story roof that distinguishes it on the skyline. Gilbert reused the Gothic Revival detailing of his earlier commissions, the Woolworth Building and 90 West Street, while folding in Art Deco massing that was becoming fashionable at the time.
the building
Gilded pyramidal roof. The tower is capped by a six-story pyramidal roof finished in gold, a signature element that sets the building apart on the Manhattan skyline and gives it a recognizable silhouette distinct from Gilbert's earlier towers.
Full city block site. The building occupies an entire block bounded by Madison Avenue, Park Avenue South, and 26th and 27th Streets, abutting Madison Square Park — the same site once occupied by Madison Square Garden.
Gothic detail, Deco massing. Gilbert layered his familiar Gothic Revival ornament, seen earlier at the Woolworth Building and 90 West Street, onto a massing influenced by the Art Deco style then coming into fashion for New York towers.
the style
Gilbert designed the building in Gothic Revival detailing consistent with his earlier towers, but incorporated Art Deco massing reflecting the architectural fashion of the late 1920s — a blend that marks a transitional moment between the two styles in New York skyscraper design.
More on Gothic Revivalthe architect
Cass Gilbert was among the leading American architects of the early skyscraper era, having previously designed the Woolworth Building and 90 West Street with similar Gothic Revival detailing. The New York Life Building, completed the same year as 130 West 30th Street, shows him returning to that vocabulary late in his career.
significance
The New York Life Building is a National Historic Landmark and a New York City Individual Landmark (LP-02067), also listed on the National Register of Historic Places and the New York State Register of Historic Places, designated October 24, 2000. Upon completion it was described as run "like a small city."
nearby
- Metropolitan Life North Building
- Sixty-Ninth Regiment Armory
- Hotel Seville (now The James NoMad Hotel)
- Metropolitan Life Insurance Company Tower
- Church of the Transfiguration
- 261 Fifth Avenue