MetLife Building

Bestriding Park Avenue like an International Style colossus, and towering over Grand Central Terminal, when the Pan Am Building arrived on the scene in 1963, it was derided as a behemoth (it had more office space than any other building in the world). Over the years, though, it has become a reassuring presence in the skyline, and has won a place in the hearts of New Yorkers. MetLife bought the building in 1981, and a decade later, as the airline's decline continued, replaced the familiar Pan Am logo on the building's crown with its own. At 808 feet, it's still one of the tallest buildings in the City, providing a happy home for its most famous tenants of recent years, a pair of rare peregrine falcons, nicknamed Lois and Clark, who fashioned a penthouse aerie atop the "MetLife" sign.