Life at Night

The New York Life Insurance Building has been described as limestone renaissance at the bottom and birthday cake at the top. This 1928, 40-story structure which towers over Madison Square Park at 51 Madison Avenue, was designed by Cass Gilbert, who had a love of pyramidal tops on his buildings - you see this in his Woolworth Building. The design is a fusion of gothic (there are 72 gargoyles at the roof line) with more modern elements. The New York Life was founded in 1845 and is the largest mutual life insurance company in the U.S. The famed gold top was built in 1967 and has been illuminated since 1985 on the company's 140th anniversary. In 1995, on the 150th anniversary, new gold leaf ceramic tiles were installed. The lit top is one of the major nighttime NYC icons which can be seen and easily identified from afar along with the Empire State Building, the Con Ed Tower, the Met Life Tower, the Citicorp Building and a handful of others.
BTW, the site for this building has a fascinating history - Union Depot, Gilmore's Garden, P.T. Barnum's Hippodrome and the original location for Madison Square Garden ...