Another nice action shot of an old skyscraper in construction. That’s the Metropolitan Life Tower in 1908, the year before it was completed and took the “tallest” title from Singer. That funny gap in the exterior-wall columns would soon become a colonnade, as you can see in the final state, a few years later:
I like the way the facade is being constructed around the future clock locations. The construction photo was taken just before the frame started to slope inward for the hip roof.
One comment about the other big buildings: Met Life built a campus at 23rd Street and Madison Avenue piece by piece. The first building, when the company moved up from downtown, was the one on the corner, to the right of the tower, which was originally almost square in plan. The annex – the building to the left of the tower in the second photo – was built next. Then the original building was extended down the block to Fourth Avenue (now Park Avenue South). Then the tower was built. And somewhat later the domed classical temple next to the annex and across 24th Street from the tower – the Madison Square Presbyterian Church – was demolished and the huge Met Life North Buidling constructed there.
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