Editing MetLife Building (section)

=== Form ===
The [[massing]] consists of a base and an octagonal tower. Contemporary sources describe the base as measuring nine stories tall, atop which rises 50 tower stories.<ref name="nyt19611029">{{cite news |date=October 29, 1961 |title=Textured Masonry Sheathes New Office Buildings |page=R1 |work=The New York Times |issn=0362-4331 |id={{ProQuest|115325278}}}}</ref><ref name="nyht19600501">{{cite news |date=May 1, 1960 |title=Commuters To Witness Tower Start: Will Get Closcup Of E. 42d St. Job |page=3C |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1324052003}}}}</ref> However, the [[Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat]] gives a conflicting measurement of 10 base stories and 49 tower stories.<ref name="Žaknić Smith Rice Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat p.">{{cite book |last1=Žaknić |first1=Ivan |title=100 of the world's tallest buildings |last2=Smith |first2=Matthew |last3=Rice |first3=Dolores B. |author4=Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat |date=1998 |publisher=Gingko Press |isbn=3-927258-60-1 |publication-place=Corte Madera, CA |page=108 |oclc=40110184}}</ref> Exterior planted areas were planned for the sidewalks and above the roof of the base.<ref name="nyht19591101" />

The tower stories' floor plates are designed in an elongated octagonal lozenge, with the longer axis running parallel to 45th Street.<ref>{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|pp=359–360}}</ref><ref name="nyht19590218">{{cite news |last=Wing |first=William G. |date=February 18, 1959 |title=New 'Grand Central City' Now Slated To Be 8 Sided |page=3 |work=New York Herald Tribune |id={{ProQuest|1324243197}}}}</ref> The north and south [[facade]]s are divided into three broad segments, while the west and east facades are one segment each. The building's form may have been influenced by the 1961 Zoning Resolution, a major change to New York City [[zoning]] code that was proposed just before construction started. The massing is similar to [[Le Corbusier]]'s unbuilt tower in [[Algiers]], proposed between 1938 and 1942,<ref name="Stern (1995) p. 360" /><ref name="ArchDaily 2016">{{cite web |last=Horsley |first=Carter B. |date=March 16, 2016 |title=How the MetLife Building Redefined Midtown Manhattan |url=https://www.archdaily.com/783927/how-the-metlife-building-redefined-midtown-manhattan |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201111182533/https://www.archdaily.com/783927/how-the-metlife-building-redefined-midtown-manhattan |archive-date=November 11, 2020 |access-date=March 25, 2021 |website=ArchDaily}}</ref> as well as the nearly contemporary [[Pirelli Tower]] in [[Milan]] (completed in 1958).<ref name="Stern (1995) p. 360">{{harvnb|Stern|Mellins|Fishman|1995|ps=.|p=360}}</ref><ref name="Nash 20052">{{cite book |last=Nash |first=Eric |title=Manhattan Skyscrapers |publisher=Princeton Architectural Press |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-56898-652-4 |publication-place=New York |page=115 |oclc=407907000}}</ref><ref name="Clausen p. 98">{{harvnb|Clausen|2005|p=98|ps=.}}</ref> The architects intended for the octagonal shape and exterior [[Curtain wall (architecture)|curtain wall]] to reduce the building's perceived sense of scale.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jencks |first=Charles |title=Modern movements in architecture. |date=June 1996 |publisher=Penguin |oclc=59631835}}</ref>