Super Eco

Photo credit: paulalo, flickr

It took 18 months to build the Empire State Building, two shakes of a furry leg for King Kong to climb it ... and it'll take about three years to green it, inside and out.

That's actually not so long for a massive eco-overhaul, not when you consider that the Seventh Wonder of the World was completed in 1931, a time when green was merely a noun and sustainable construction was right up there with landing on the moon—impossible.

Not so anymore. Efforts are already underway to green-retrofit the New York City Art Deco icon, from the vestibule to the spire and all 102 floors in between.

Here's what's greening at the city's tallest building:

• Mass-scale heating, cooling and lighting sustainability and reduced C02 upgrades that will lower the edifice's total energy consumption by 38 percent.
• A building-wide energy efficiency makeover, eventually adding up to $4.4 million in savings, placing the historic edifice among the top 10% of the world's greenest office buildings.
• Replacing all of the skyscraper's 6,500 windows with insulated glass and adding energy-saving occupancy sensors to all interior lights ... and tons more.

Sounds like more than flash-in-the-pan greenwashing to me, perhaps even worth a road trip to the Big Apple with the fam this summer. (Look, kids! Eco cops!) If only we had enough green to tour all of the world's greenest skyscrapers. I wonder, will the Empire State Building go for LEED Gold? If so, which NYC aging skyscrapers will follow suit?

While we wait and see, just for fun, let's turn the YouTube clock back to 1933, when King Kong made the Empire State Building even more famous than it already was ... and will continue to be for all the right reasons. Soon, the tower will stand as a green beacon of 20th century architecture that successfully (albeit crazy expensively—$20 million and growing) adapted and advanced toward a more sustainable future.

*How evergreen is New York's 19th Century Governor's Mansion? You might be in for a surprise.