11 Madison Ave

My new offices are at 11 Madison Ave. This building has quite a history and is rather spectacular, especially inside the lobby.

(The following text has been lifted and edited from www.greatgridlock.net/NYC)

It all goes back to the building next door at 1 Madison Ave that was completed in 1909 as the headquarters for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
The 213.5 m clock tower facing Madison Square Park was added to the original building (108,700 m², built in 1893) to make it the tallest in the world.

In October 1929, Met Life announced plans for building to the opposite side of 24th Street, at 11-25 Madison Avenue. Replacing McKim, Mead & White's Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, completed only 13 years earlier, the new building was originally planned to incorporate around 100 storeys and restore Metropolitan Life the title of the world's tallest.
The Depression, however, prevented from realizing such grandiose plans. When work came to a halt in 1933, only 29 storeys of the original plan had been completed. That reflects in, for example, the 30 elevators available for as many floors. Although the massive size of the building was enabled by air-conditioning and lighting, the bow-tie shape was, nevertheless, devised to provide sorts of light-court to maximize the available natural light.
Two whole floors of the building were originally built with low ceilings and fitted with filing cabinets for Met Life's files. Later, the floor was torn from between these storeys and the space turned into a banking hall.
There are two lobbies, with the southern, at 11 Madison, going through the whole longer axis of the building. Decor of the three storey high space consists of a coffered ceiling as well as of pink granite floors and gold vein-veined marble walls.