Metropolitan Life president Joseph Fairchild Knapp hired Napoleon LeBrun & Sons in 1890. The original east wing began that year, and the tower was built from 1905 to 1909. The article describes Italian Renaissance motifs modeled on St Mark's Campanile, though the infobox lists both Gothic Revival and Italian Renaissance Revival.
The tower is about 700 feet (210 m) tall with 49 floors. Its four clock faces, each 26.5 feet (8 m) across, were the largest in the world when completed. It was the world's tallest building from 1909 until the Woolworth Building passed it in 1913.
A renovation replaced the marble and Renaissance detail with plain limestone. The infobox dates it to 1953 to 1957, and the text says 1961 to 1964. It became a National Historic Landmark in 1978 and a 273-room hotel in 2015. Kohn Pedersen Fox's glass addition to the east wing was completed in 2024.
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