One of the most distinctive parts of a house is the roof, whether that is a carefully sloping shingled roof or a rooftop escape crafted by flat roof specialists, and in some cases will be the part of the home that stands out most.

With that said, few roofs stand out quite as much as the shimmering golden steeple that rests at the top of the New York Life Building, a notable skyscraper made in the Gothic Revival tradition that famously catches the light at sunrise and sunset.

It, therefore, manages to stand out even in a city with much taller and much grander buildings, but that was not always the intention of such a strange roof when designer Cass Gilbert brought his last great skyscraping vision to life after the Woolworth building and 90 West Street.

Its location, 51 Madison Avenue, had previously been a railroad terminal, but when that was moved became Gilmore’s Garden, the original Hippodrome as made famous by P.T. Barnum, and finally the original location of the famous sporting arena Madison Square Garden.

In 1924, that second incarnation was demolished to make way for a building initially inspired by the Salisbury Cathedral and cost two years to complete at a cost of $21m, a significant amount of which paid for the 440,000 cubic feet of limestone that clad the building.

It was designed to be a cross between a 19th-century Gothic Revival structure and a more modern Art Deco building of the time, so the straight lines and use of solid bronze were complemented by stone gargoyles and other powerful images.

However, the most powerful of all was the golden roof, which initially was a copper steeple covered in gold leaf. That was, at least, until the copper started to corrode.

This led to the copper being replaced with terracotta tiles dipped in gold leaf, to carry a similar look but one that would last longer.