THE PAN AM BUILDING IS BORN

A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF PAN AMERICAN AIRWAYS, ON THE DEDICATION OF THE PAN AM BUILDING

"All great buildings are monuments as well as shelters. They have a purpose beyond their use. The enormous pyramids of Egypt were erected not only to preserve the bodies of the Pharaohs from desecration and the common dust, but to remind posterity of their magnificence and power. We build for other ends. Our noblest structures are created not to preserve the dead, but to serve the living, and the monumental purpose is not to commemorate great kings but to speak for the imagination, the vitality, and the strength of a free people.

The building we dedicate today is such a structure. It will be a working place for thousands of men and women. It will be a monument to our civilization and to our free-enterprise system. Its size is impressive. It is the largest office building in the world. Its beauty is evident. Its admirable proportions and pure mass dominate a crossing of famous streets in a famous city — and mark a harmonizing center toward which men’s eyes will turn with recognition and delight for years to come.

Back of its great size and balanced beauty there are factors of human effort and cooperation which add a new dimension. It was conceived and constructed by an Atlantic partnership, whose continuing vitality is evident by the presence here today of the President of the Board of Trade of Great Britain, and the Secretary of Commerce of the United States. Through this partnership the savings of hundreds of thousands of private citizens on both sides of the Atlantic have been channeled to finance the work and bring this joint effort to success.

All this is history now, but there is something more which is not history — Pan American. The Company for which I speak today, was named some 35 years ago to develop human understanding and unity in a diverse and separated hemisphere. That name has gradually changed on the tongues of the millions of human beings who have spoken it, not in this hemisphere alone, but all over the world. Use has worn it away to two short syllables — PAN AM— but these short syllables now speak for human unity throughout the whole free world — a unity furthered by fast, frequent, low-cost transportation that has made for us many close neighbors and true friends on every continent.

On behalf of 30,000 Pan Am men and women, at their posts along the air routes of the world, and on behalf of our 40,000 shareholders it is my privilege to name the great building, which will serve as the Home Office of our Company, the Pan Am Building." – Juan T. Trippe.

OPENING Ceremonies

The Pan Am Building was officially opened with a high-profile ribbon cutting on March 7, 1963.

Along with an audience of hundreds, the big event was attended by New York’s government luminaries, the US Commerce Secretary, Jack Cotton and of course Juan Trippe.

But Erwin Wolfson was not there. After a cancer diagnosis, he had continued to oversee the progress of the new building, making aerial survey trips over the site by helicopter from his home, until his death only a few months later in June 1962. In his honor, a large bust of Wolfson by was installed in the lobby, unveiled by his wife, Rose, at the opening.

With the building open for business, it quickly assumed its place in the city’s fabric.

A month after the opening, it was expected that the final tenant would be in place within five months. Of the 7,500 workers who participated in the construction, only a few were still on the job.

More developments followed in the coming months. Among the most notable was the news in July that Pan Am had agreed to buy two Boeing-Vertol 107 twin-rotor helicopters. They would be leased to New York Airways to add to their fleet in anticipation of opening the proposed rooftop heliport service. That wouldn’t actually happen until December 1965, but the news added an exciting aura to the environment at 200 Park Avenue.

And Panamac was not the only large computer system in the building. The second largest tenant, the Commercial Union Insurance Group, had also installed a large data processing system, taking advantage of the robust telecommunications infrastructure that was available from the start.

On the first floor, Rochette and Parzini, masters of plaster sculpture, were creating a unique stylized elliptical bas-relief representation of Pan Am’s iconic globe in the new ticket office and information center.

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Transcript

"The Helicopter," Pan American World Airways, 1966, German Language version. translated into english by Juergen Fraenznick.

This Boeing helicopter can seat up to 25 passengers. He took off from the PanAm Heliport in Manhattan. In a few minutes he will land at John F. Kennedy International Airport, 21 kilometers away.

Travelers have embraced the helicopter as the best mode of transport to get to the airport.

Traveling to the airport or to the city is now easy. You land on the PanAm building in the heart of New York.

Departure formalities are completed at the counter on the ground floor. You no longer need to worry about your luggage until you arrive at your destination.

"Taxi! – Taxi!!" There are of course other ways to get to the airport, but they are not always as pleasant nor are they quite as interesting.

In less than a minute you can reach the heliport on the roof.

You can also take a cab from Manhattan, but it will take you five times as long to get to Kennedy Airport.

As the taxi moves into the perfectly normal maze of traffic, the New York Airways helicopter flies overhead.

Kennedy International Airport.

Free bus transportation of passengers to all connecting flights.

A flight to the city. It's just as easy to fly into New York. Almost 50 flights operate daily in both directions. Baggage is transported on the same flight.

Some passengers fly by helicopter just to enjoy the unique great view of New York.

This jet age, with ever-increasing air speeds and slowing road traffic, in which airports are being moved further away from city centers, has discovered the helicopter as a civilian means of transport. A logical consequence of this age.

the legacy of the pan am building

In March, 1977, as the helicopter service was entering its final phase, other events were unfolding that would lead to finalization of a different dimension of the Pan Am Building’s story – the matter of the building’s ownership.

Back in 1960, when Pan Am signed the deal for the 25-year lease, the company also took a 10% equity stake as well. Erwin Wolfson and his British partner Jack Cotton held the balance equally between them. But by 1968, both men had died. Pan Am moved to obtain a controlling interest in Grand Central Building, Inc., the corporation created to own and manage the building. Jack Cotton’s estate sold its 45% share to the airline that year, giving Pan Am a controlling interest. In May, Juan Trippe stepped aside as Chairman, after a 41-year career at Pan Am. He was leaving the company with a solid position, including its control of the Pan Am Building.

But management of the building had not gone smoothly in the ensuing years. By 1977, a lawsuit brought by the trustees of the estate of Erwin Wolfson claimed that Pan Am had been working to engineer their forced sale of the 45% they still retained by withholding dividend payments, and illegally subleasing space.

It proved a losing battle. Just over a year later, the Wolfson Estate sold its stake in the building. Now Pan Am, after18 years, had full ownership of the Pan Am Building. Not long after that, early in 1979, Pan Am paid Penn Central Properties (the successor to the once-mighty New York Central Railroad) $25 million for the property on which the building sat. The sale ended another lawsuit.

But the future for Pan American’s now total control of the building was going to be short-lived. Even as the ink was drying on the land deal, William Seawell, Pan Am’s Chairman, was considering how to face immediate problems. The possibility of moving the airline’s headquarters to the suburbs was a matter of public discussion.

By the following year, arrangements were being made to auction the building. After a first round, the group of bidders had been winnowed down to five, Met Life among them (as was Donald Trump). The insurance company won the bid for $400 million – the most expensive building sale price up to that time. The net proceeds boosted the airline’s quarterly profit, but it did not alter long-term prospects for Pan Am.

But the now iconic presence above Park Avenue was a reminder of what had been. Pan Am was a tenant, where once it had been the landlord. The big letters were still there, lighted up at night as they had been since 1963. Met Life already had an older building downtown which was commonly known as the Met Life Building, and more years rolled by, until Pan Am’s final chapter closed at the end of 1991. Not long after, in early 1992, Met Life decided it was time to change out the big letters and the trademark globes that had for so long identified the building at 200 Park Avenue. The Pan Am Building would now be –visually at least – the Met Life Building.