First occupied in 1947, this huge rental housing complex was developed by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. The development occupies 18 New York City blocks of the former Gas House District, or 80 acres. The relentless adherence to a "tower in the park" scheme designed by Irwin Clavan and Gilmore D. Clarke, together with Robert Moses'advocacy of eminent domain for private purposes, helped realize the project in less than five years, although there were some lawsuits regarding eminent domain. Well-publicized challenges to Met Life's racially discriminatory housing policy helped speed the completion of the "separate but equal" Riverton Houses uptown. Met Life sold the Stuy Town complex to Tishman Speyer in 2006, but class action lawsuits brought by rent-stabilized tenants and general economic ill fortune induced the new owners to hand over the complex to their creditors in order to avoid bankruptcy.
