The site was the location of a 5-alarm fire in October 1966 in which 12 firefighters died, the New York City Fire Department's worst loss of life before the September 11, 2001 attacks. The property was owned by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, which failed to find a buyer for a decade. In the mid-1970s, when the neighborhood, now known as the Flatiron District, was at its nadir, it was announced that an apartment building would be built on the site, but the building was not actually constructed until 1982, signalling a change in the area's fortunes. The building was designed by Philip Birnbaum, with interior public spaces designed by David Kenneth Spector.