All That Glitters

I notice the glinting golden tops of these two Madison Square Park buildings all the time, from both sides of the East River; above left is the New York Life Building; above right is the Met Life North Building, with the gold top of the more famous sibling behind it, the Met Life Building.  I recently stumbled on information that made me wonder if the tops are plastic.

Large plastic architectural features are usually painfully obvious, like the cupola caps on the O'Neill Building on 6th Ave., below left.


But it turns out the architectural plastic company guilty of the fakes on 6th Ave. also did a plastic cupola for the Helmsley Building at the foot of Park Ave., above right.  I looked up at it a few weeks ago, and "plastic" didn't cross my mind.

So I wondered if the tops on Madison Square Park are plastic, especially the Met Life building on the top right here.  (Note the North building's odd squat shape (roof line, right) is just a portion of the original 100 floor design, left (see bottom here), chopped down to 32 floors by the 1929 crash.)

It turns out that the Met Life top is the real gold leaf thing (see bottom here).  And I haven't seen evidence of plastic in the New York Life top, which looks like it was lifted from Southeast Asia.

But while we're on plastic, take a look at the synagogue ceiling and church dome below, both from the same plastic company.  They make me wonder: Does God mind plastic?