Big Buildings - Dirty Secrets

The CTBUH uses the term "vanity spires" to describe tops of buildings where a ton of extra height is added, even though that space isn't used for people.

The List: how big buildings are cleaned - How big buildings are cleaned – from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the Empire State Building in New York. This week, a specialist team ascended London’s Houses of Parliament to clean the clock faces of the Elizabeth Tower – home to the famous Big Ben bell. The hands on each of the clock’s four faces were frozen for the week-long task but its chimes still rang out and the workers on the 96m-tall tower wore ear defenders to protect their hearing. Kasia Delgado reveals how four other big buildings around the world are cleaned.

1. Burj Khalifa, Dubai

The 24,830 windows of the world’s tallest building are made from a million sq ft of glass. When the 830m tower was cleaned in 2012 a team of 36 people needed three months to wash them. They started from the top floor and worked down, standing on specially designed machines that emerged from cavities in the skyscraper and moved along rails skirting its curved towers. The project manager at Grako, the cleaning company that took on the task, said that coping with the height was “all about mindset”.

2. Empire State Building, New York

Window-washers at the 6,500-window Manhattan landmark have reported how, in winter, food and drink thrown out of windows of high-up floors often freezes on glass lower down – and that frozen coffee and yoghurt, for example, can be particularly difficult to scrub off. This is, of course, far from the only problem when cleaning a New York skyscraper. Richard Hart, head of the Empire State window-washing team in 1937, remarked casually that, “I’ll be working away, and a gust of wind will come screaming up from 34th Street and for a moment I’ll be doing a tap dance on nothing. Anyway, it keeps me interested.”

3. Petronas Towers, Malaysia

When the Petronas Towers were opened in Kuala Lumpur in 1996 there was a dispute over whether they were taller than the Sears building in Chicago (now called the Willis Tower) – the world’s tallest when it was completed in 1973. What is not in doubt is the cleanliness of the skyscrapers’ glass. The two towers are fitted with a total of 11 cranes that allow cleaners to move up and down between the 32,000 windows. It takes workers a month to clean the panes on each tower and, when they finish, they go back to the top and begin again.

4. Hearst Tower, New York

It took engineers three years to build a machine that would enable cleaners to wash Norman Foster’s 182m tall skyscraper, which opened in 2006. The windows, made up of concave diamond shapes, were impossible to access using ordinary means so a rectangular steel box the size of a small car was designed to move around the roof of the tower on an elevated steel track. The project’s construction manager described the car as “like a ride at Disneyland”.

The 10 Tallest Vanity Spires - click to enlarge.

The World's Tallest Skyscrapers Have A Dirty Little Secret - The Burj Khalifa in Dubai and the Bank of America tower in New York count among the worst offenders: Supertall skyscrapers aren't necessarily built to fit as many people inside as possible, sometimes they're just aiming to be, well, really tall. Large portions of these buildings are designed to increase height, but remain unoccupied. Wasteful!

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat (CTBUH), a not for profit organization that tracks the world's skyscrapers, just released some data on that subject. Surprise! Some really tall buildings don't need to be so tall. The CTBUH uses the term "vanity spires" to describe tops of buildings where a ton of extra height is added, even though that space isn't used for people. By unused height, above are the 10 buildings with the most ridiculous spires (click to enlarge picture).

So the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the World at nearly 830 meters, has 244 meters of unoccupied space. To put that in context, as the CTBUH does, if that 244 meters were itself a building, it would be the 11th tallest in Europe. Pretty crazy, right? But it's also not new. Think about classic skyscrapers like the Empire State Building and the Chrysler Building, which were similarly designed with big spires. You might notice that the skyscrapers with the largest vanity spires were all built fairly recently (the oldest is from 1999) but there are also just more supertall buildings being erected. It would take a little more math to say buildings like this are on the rise, so to speak.

It's also not clear how these spires change the buildings' environmental footprints, although we know at least one of them listed above, the Bank of America Tower in New York, has some pretty serious efficiency issues. One of the study's authors, CTBUH's Daniel Safarik, wrote in an email to PopularScience that "we did not explicitly look at how vanity height affects environmental footprint for this study, but that is clearly one of the most vital issues implied by the findings." Just having the title of "tallest" is a draw for a building, he says, it matters less what all that space is used for. So what to do? "If [a tallest building] criteria were based on 'highest occupied floor,' in theory, there would be less of an incentive to have the 'vanity height,'" Safarik writes.

Until that changes, more buildings may add vanity height just to top other structures. Or maybe we can keep things the way they are, and just have a skyscraper where you can't go above the lobby.

So the Burj Khalifa, the tallest building in the world at nearly 830 meters, has 244 meters of unoccupied space. To put that in context, as the CTBUH does, if that 244 meters were itself a building, it would be the 11th tallest in Europe. Here, meanwhile, are those buildings broken down geographically. Click to enlarge.

Viral Window Cleaning News

The Most Positive Man I Know: His name is Darron Mothersby and he is, by a long way, the most positive person I have met for some time. On August 31st 2012 he fell from his ladder while window cleaning and is now paralysed from his neck down. Despite this any visitor to his bedside goes away feeling much better than when they arrived. Yes he has issues with his health, he's desperate to get rid of his respirator for example, but Darron is full of encouragement and positivity. He hopes to go home at some point in the future. He has an indoor chair that he can operate with his chin, it's not great because as he moves and bumps into something it clouts him in the chin. What he really needs is a head operated outdoor chair. Sadly this is not in the budget for the local authority. At a cost of £15k it's also not in the range of Darron's pocket either. What is remarkable is that his many friends have started a collection doing Marathon runs and garden parties among other things and have so far raised £8.5k toward his much needed chair. So here's the thing, can I ask that if you have read this blog you do some if not all of the following things..

1. Go to Darron's facebook page and 'Like' that page.
2. Re-tweet/message/facebook this blog so that your friends can also share this message.
3. Send Darron a message, say hi or tell him Hull City will be relegated. He's a good sense of humour!
4. Finally, and only if you are able, see if you can donate a few £'s to his fund here. 

Darron is a wonderful man and is supported tirelessly by his family and friends, he's had a setback in life and yet is the most giving of individuals. I love the guy and don't see him nearly as often as I would like to. Can we as individuals, businesses and fellow window cleaners make his life just that little bit easier. If you can, please do. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please share. By Stuart (The short one with no hair in the picture).

Window Cleaners - Lets take this viral!  Like we did last time!

A window cleaner on zip line is seen as he cleans the glass of a glass pedestrian passage in Dubai's business district. 

This stunning building proposed for Sydney’s Darling Harbour precinct is being flagged as a possible future home for Google Australia. Meet The Ribbon.

This Beautiful, Twisting Glass Building Could Be Google Australia's Next HQ - This stunning building proposed for Sydney’s Darling Harbour precinct is being flagged as a possible future home for Google Australia. The concept for “The Ribbon” takes advantage of cutting-edge building technologies that allow for twisting glass facades — as seen in London’s The Shard — and is being marketed as a prestige home for a major company. It’s at the current location of Sydney’s IMAX theatre and is right next to Commonwealth Bank’s new complex at Darling Quarter, which houses over 6000 personnel. Australia’s largest private developer Grocon and property management company Markham announced they had submitted a development application for the project this week. They say they are aiming to create a landmark similar to The Shard or the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.

Grocon’s NSW general manager Chris Carolan told Business Insider the design drew on an emerging trend for “these innovative curved structures, all around the world, including in the Middle East and China. We want to bring it to this country.” Sydney’s corporate architecture is generally conservative, and statements tend to be matters of height or signage rather than creative design. The Ribbon sweeps upwards and outwards from the ground along its east-west axis, with an undulating facade made entirely from glass wrapping around the building.

Inside, the furthest you can get from a window is 12m. The windows have a particularly slick feature that will excite any desk jockey: they are triple glazed and contain a venetian shade sitting in a cavity between the glass panels to keep the sun out when needed. Oh, they’re computer-controlled, too. No cord-wrestling. This gets around one of the drawbacks of many modern offices which have large window areas but rely heavily on the use of overhanging ledges, fixed slats and other shading devices which, while keeping out the harsh summer sun, also block the view. “Our research has shown that some of what people see as internal comfort is the ability to see outside,” Carolan said. If the development is approved by authorities it would take around three years to build. Assuming it was ready to occupy around 2017, its first openings would line up closely with the expiry of Google’s current property commitments which expire the following year, in 2018.

Window-washers described a zone of cool air around the building on the hottest days, and curtains moved in the breezes even with the windows closed.

Two Icons Go Green: Long overdue upgrades make the Empire State Building and the U.N. Secretariat building relevant in the 21st Century. Two iconic Manhattan skyscrapers have emerged from major renovations with sharply reduced carbon footprints, making them beacons of New York's evolving "green skyline."

The 102-story Empire State Building, designed by Shreve, Lamb and Harmon and completed in 1931, was already scheduled for renovation in 2008 when the nonprofit Clinton Climate Initiative approached Anthony Malkin about ways to reduce its carbon footprint. (Malkin and his father lead the investors who own the building.) One of the goals of the renovation was "to prove the economic viability of a deep energy retrofit," says Schneider. She and her team began examining dozens of strategies; they eventually came up with a plan they projected would reduce energy use by 38 percent, paying for itself within three years.

"For most owners, an energy project has to pay for itself within three or four years through reduced energy costs to be considered a good investment," says Schneider. The strategies included reconstructing each of the building's 6,514 double-hung windows, reusing the existing glass, sash and trim, and adding a low-emissivity (low-E) film suspended between the two panes of glass to more than double the original R-2.0 center-of-glass thermal value. The remanufacturing was carried out on-site, to avoid the costs, monetary and environmental, of shipping. In fact, Schneider says, the energy savings have exceeded the projected 38 percent in the first two years of post-renovation operation.

Rather than having to satisfy investors, the U.N. answers to 193 member states. But the Secretariat building was so dilapidated that virtually everyone could see the need for drastic measures. The building's original, 1/8-inch-thick glass provided practically no insulation. Window-washers described a zone of cool air around the building on the hottest days, and curtains moved in the breezes even with the windows closed. Over the years, the U.N. had added reflective film to the glass, to reduce heat absorption and glare, but the film just made the glass look dirty.

What is new in the Tirol for next season? Oh and if you are a window cleaner you may want to apply for a job at the restaurant below. Someone will have their work cut out at this futuristic new restaurant high above Solden. With many resorts and ski areas across the Alps seeing less visitors the Tirol has seen an increase. Last winter UK skiers and snowboarders were up 5% and the UK market is third behind Germany and the Netherlands. The resorts which saw the highest overall increase in arrivals were  Seefeld (+25.7%), Alpbach (+23.3%) and Wildschönau (17%), as a result of the new Ski Juwel combined area.

(Real) Technologies That Exist Today - Transparent Aluminum Armor: What starts as powder and suddenly becomes so powerful it can withstand bullets? Well, with a little bit (OK a lot) of heat and pressure: the latest in transparent armor. Lighter and even stronger than bulletproof glass, the Air Force has been testing aluminum oxynitride (ALON) in hopes of replacing windows in its aircraft. And judging by the fact that the clear ceramic material can stop a .50-caliber rifle’s bullet travelling 2,700 feet per second —normally powerful enough to slice through a lightly armored vehicle like butter — we’d say that’s a more-than-justified investment. Is this the next thing for window cleaners to clean?

They got their MBAs, but prefer paint clothes over suits - Eugenio and Jordan Fortino are painting nearly every square inch of the Witton Lofts condos. Baseboard, doors, ceilings, walls … they could draw the layout of the condos in their sleep. It is the second big, prestigious painting contract for Eugenio 31, and Jordan 27, who started Fortino Bros. Painting & Decorating in 2010. To say they climbed their way to the top with College Pro Painters and Action Window Cleaners (now College Pro) is an understatement. 

They started cleaning windows first, then customers would ask if they did painting. Next they jumped in with College Pro Painters, and quickly moved from workers to managers when they started to run their own franchise. The hustle needed to keep the franchise earning money was a fantastic learning experience according to Eugenio. "We were always looking for more work and setting jobs up. I remember one January skipping classes to go clean a customer's eaves."
Painting and cleaning paid off. Eugenio banked $70,000 to pay for school, and Jordan $55,000. Then they graduated with shiny MBAs and joined the suit and tie treadmill. Eugenio went to work for an insurance company, and Jordan for a bank. They both could have made a good living, but something was missing. "I had a mentor at the insurance company," Eugenio says. "He asked me if I was up till 3 a.m. reading insurance policies. That's what he did. He told me when I talked about the painting business my eyes lit up. He was telling me to do what I was passionate about." So Eugenio called Jordan, a meeting was set up - it was in a garage - over a few beers.

Ideas that Henry Ford taught a century ago about the advantages of continuous mass production are finding their way into the manufacture of one of the few remaining products still made batch-wise: the billions of tablets, capsules and other forms of medicine that people take each year. Continuous processing is used in most other large-scale manufacturing such as food production, petroleum refinement and water treatment. Some industries use an extreme version. Blast furnaces that produce iron from iron ore, for instance, may operate non-stop or with only brief pauses for 8-10 years. The machines that produce window glass run continuously for up to 18 years.

The Most Awesomely Eighties 1980s Music Videos - There was one easy way to make a video look artsy in the Eighties: strip the color. Try it: imagine adding color to "Every Breath You Take" by the Police and it's just a guy playing stand-up bass and another guy washing a window. Remove the hues, it's an intense, slightly creepy Video Music Award winner. Video here.

Drummer, Wurster, the window cleaner (second left).

Superchunk - the band with the window cleaner - McCaughan saw Wurster washing windows around Chapel Hill — including at 'Schoolkids', the record shop where he was working at the time — and asked the drummer to join the band after they'd parted ways with founding member Chuck "Chunk" Garrison. And so, to learn McCaughan's latest batch of songs, Wurster would listen to a cassette of Superchunk's sophomore full-length, 1991's No Pocky For Kitty, on headphones as he worked. His first album with the band, 1993's On the Mouth, was their last for Matador before releasing their records on Merge.

A window washer with dreams and, it seems, a direct link not only to the World Wide Web, but to the tech future. But not a squeegee in sight!

At the Signature Theatre, Regina Taylor’s ‘stop. reset.’ moves the techno theme a few decades closer to the present. Set in the Chicago headquarters of a black publishing company that’s been taken over by a conglomerate with the bottom line paramount, it’s a timely meditation on the gloomy outlook for books -- real ones, with pages and spines and ink -- in the digital age. Carl Lumbly is stirring as Alexander Ames, the aging, up-from-poverty patriarch. Even better is Ismael Cruz Cordova as “J,” a window washer with dreams and, it seems, a direct link not only to the World Wide Web, but to the tech future.

A man has been jailed for attacking two Jehovah’s Witnesses on a street in Kirkby. A jury convicted Michael Nimmo (35), of Diamond Avenue, Kirkby, of religiously aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm and common assault. He admitted the assaults but denied any of it was fuelled by religious hostility. Victim Gerald Thorburn, a self-employed window cleaner, was off work for several weeks after suffering a broken wrist in the daytime assault on Clumber Street on 15th September last year. Judge Andrew Hamilton, jailing Nimmo for 18 months, told him: “This was a completely unprovoked assault on innocent members of the public who happened to be Jehovah’s Witnesses calling at people’s homes. “Jehovah’s Witnesses are entitled to walk the street and knock on people’s doors. “You decided you didn’t like them. You called them ‘Johvos’, were abusive to them and spat at them.” The jury was told Nimmo ‘got into the faces’ of the two men, asking, ‘what are your views on weed?’ When Mr Thorburn took a photo of Nimmo on his mobile phone, Nimmo grabbed him round the neck and tried to take the phone from him. Nimmo, in his defence, claimed that when Mr Thorburn spoke to him some spittle accidentally came out, so he spat back. The court was told that Nimmo spat and hit the second man David Wass. The judge said Nimmo had committed numerous offences in the past and was on prison licence at the time. The sentence would have been longer but Nimmo had found work and had the support of his partner.

An Angus man who tricked elderly residents into paying him money for window cleaning work he had not carried out has been warned he could face jail. Kenneth Tough, 25, of Burnett Drive in Arbroath appeared at the town’s sheriff court on Tuesday, where he admitted defrauding four pensioners at Andy Stewart Court on Cliffburn Road on August 4. Tough had his sentenced deferred for the preparation of reports. The accused pleaded guilty to convincing the residents, aged 85, 84, 76 and 60, to pay him money for cleaning their windows when he attended at their addresses on the day in question.

Tough also admitted he stole £20 from a coin counter at another address at Andy Stewart Court on the same day. He claimed he was a window cleaner and told residents he was collecting money. Sheriff Peter Paterson confirmed none of the money taken by Tough was returned by the accused. The sheriff told the accused: “Given the nature of the charge a custodial sentence must be in my mind.”

Conman swindled Buttershaw widow, 83, of cash: A bogus odd job man who “shamelessly and despicably” ripped off an 83-year-old widow has been jailed for four years. Gavin Windle fleeced his vulnerable victim numerous times, turning up at her Buttershaw home drunk and threatening to pull the wires out of her TV set if she did not give him £45, Bradford Crown Court heard. He demanded £20 after pretending he was washing windows for charity and another £20 to cancel the arrangement. Windle, 34, of Orleans Street, Buttershaw, had spent eight of the past ten years behind bars, including serving a three-year stretch for house breaking and five and a half years for robbery. He was arrested on May 16 after being challenged by the widow’s worried neighbours who saw him staggering about with screwdrivers and kept an eye on him until the police arrived.

Windle was held in custody until yesterday’s hearing. He pleaded guilty to three offences of fraud, reflecting numerous occasions when he swindled the elderly woman over almost a year. Prosecutor Andrew Stranex said Windle’s victim, who lived alone, had a very poor memory and it was impossible to work out exactly how much he had taken. Although the sums were not very large, they meant a lot to her. He had been to her home many times, posing as a window cleaner and a Sky box repair man. Windle had a string of convictions for dishonesty and two for possession of heroin.

A dad of two had part of his tongue bitten off by a burly businessman in a drunken pub brawl. David Greaves was told by a judge that his attack on 33-year-old Kevin Dufton in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, was “truly horrific”. The 49-year-old grandad, the boss of a window cleaning firm dodged jail for what Judge Gillian Matthews, QC, said was “probably a unique” case.

Teesside Crown Court heard how Greaves started the trouble inside The Falcon in Chester-le-Street by head-butting and punching Mr Dufton on May 25. The shaven-headed attacker was invited outside for a fight and when the “younger and fitter” man got the better of him, he tried to gouge out his eyes. Prosecutor Peter Sabiston told the court that Greaves somehow latched onto Mr Dufton’s tongue as they grappled on the ground and bit off a 3cm chunk. Unaware of the scale of his injuries after his attacker fled, Mr Dufton chased him and gave him a “comprehensive beating” before going to hospital.

Greaves was repeatedly punched and kicked as he was wedged against a car, and suffered two black eyes and a detached retina, the court heard. Christopher Knox, mitigating, told Judge Matthews: “There was a certain poetic justice meted out by this complainant to this defendant afterwards. “He may be smaller than Mr Greaves, but he is younger and much fitter. He was on top. In the tussle, I’m afraid quite a bit of his tongue was bitten off.” In an impact statement, Mr Dufton said his children were “scared and confused” by his injury, and he is now conscious of his speech defect.

Greaves, of Brackenbends Close, Pelton, near Chester-le-Street, admitted causing grievous bodily harm and was given a two-year suspended jail term. Judge Matthews also ordered him to pay £2,000 in compensation and imposed a two-year restraining order to keep him away from the victim. She told Greaves: “This is a truly horrific offence. In defending yourself, you went far too far and caused him permanent injury. “The circumstances are unusual if not unique. The complainant exacted some degree of revenge and subjected you to a comprehensive beating. “No matter how he behaved to you in advance did not justify your disgraceful conduct, which must have been a truly horrendous thing.”

A fracking protester from Birmingham has told how she was kept in jail for 26 hours after supergluing herself to a window – allegedly causing just £4 of damage. Kara Moses, 29, was arrested at the London offices of Bell Pottinger, the PR company who represent fracking firm Cuadrilla. She has been charged with causing £4 of criminal damage and banned from carrying glue as part of her bail conditions. Kara was one of six women arrested after spending five hours glued to the entrance of the PR office. Their protest took place at the same time as demonstrations at Cuadrilla’s Lichfield HQ and in the village of Balcombe in West Sussex.

Vintage Footage Of Window Washers - Empire State Building

Adjustments: The Empire State Building does not have a flat roof, window cleaners are not able to attach themselves to a rope from the roof. Click to enlarge all pictures on this page.

Watch out below! Vintage footage of window washers cleaning the Empire State building just years after it was built - New York is known for its glittering skyline and breath-taking skyscrapers, but it takes a good deal of work to keep the view looking that brilliant. Footage has been released of window washers cleaning from great heights as they work to keep the Empire State Building sparkling. The news brief, shot in 1938, shows the fearless men going about their job, seemingly unaware of the massive drop just below them. Also see here & here for more footage about the Empire State Building.

High up: Footage has been released of window washers cleaning from great heights as they work to keep the Empire State Building sparkling.

No fear: The news brief, shot in 1938, shows the fearless men going about their job, seemingly unaware of the massive drop just below them.

The building itself was built only seven years prior to the British Pathe footage, and it was the tallest building in the world up until the construction of the World Trade Center in 1972. This video, along with all of British Pathe's archival materials, is now available for viewing free online to American audiences for the first time. While the men clearly were aware of the risks involved with their job, but the video is remarkable as the viewer can clearly see the traffic far below. 'No one can deny that a window cleaner isn't attached to his work, especially when he's 102 stories above the streets of New York,' the narrator explains.

Staying close: Instead, what they did was attach themselves to eye bolts that are embedded inside of the building.

Old school: The New York landmark was one of the few buildings in the world to continue to use this traditional labor intensive method into the 21st century.

Like some early skyscrapers, the Empire State Building does not have a flat roof, window cleaners are not able to attach themselves to a rope from the roof. Instead, what they did was attach themselves to eye bolts that are embedded inside of the building. The men then attach a taut rope to the eye bolts that are on either side of each of the windows in the building and then hangs outside of them to clean each window individually.

Good view: The Chrysler Building is seen through one window washer's legs.

Landmark: For over 40 years after it was built, the 102-storey Empire State Building was the tallest in the world.

Considering there are 6,500 windows in the building, which is now used as rentable business space and a tourist attraction, they clearly need a safe method that will work for the cleaners. The New York landmark was one of the few buildings in the world to continue to use this traditional labor intensive method into the 21st century. The video narrator is right when he comments that 'it looks a paneful business'.

When they were building it (not for the nervous)..

6,514 Windows - Greening The Empire State Building

How the Empire State Building Is Pioneering the Future of Energy Efficiency - Greening the world’s most iconic skyscraper. The Empire State's State Iconic but aging, the Empire State was an energy suck. Now its undergoing an energy overhaul that will cut its energy consumption by nearly 40 percent.

The Empire State Building, arguably the world’s most famous office tower, is 1,472 vertical feet of historic American real estate. It also contains 2.8 million square feet of office space, constructed to the energy efficiency standards of the early 1930s. So when Anthony Malkin took over management of the building several years ago, he also inherited an $11 million annual energy bill and a problem: How could he turn the iconic but aging building into a 21st-century office tower?

Now, a sweeping $13.4 million energy retrofit is slashing the Empire State Building’s energy consumption by nearly 40 percent and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 105,000 metric tons over the next 15 years while trimming $4.4 million from annual energy costs. We took a firsthand look at what such a massive and meaningful project looks like, starting in a nondescript corner of the fifth floor where the Empire State Building is turning two-decade-old glass into future dollars.

 It’s here that 100 double-pane windows per day are ripped from their aging frames, put through a rigorous cleaning process, treated with a thin UV-resistant film, and pumped full of pressurized argon and krypton gasses that improve their insulation values. By the time the retrofit is complete, all 6,514 windows will have been refurbished at a cost more than $1,600 per window less expensive than replacing them would be.

The window rehab – and other projects like it – reduces the energy load on the building, which in turn allows the engineers behind the retrofit to find efficiencies elsewhere. It’s all part of an 8-point plan that will eventually reduce the building’s energy consumption by 38.4 percent and its expenses by a few million dollars each year. With a footprint the size of the Empire State Building’s, that’s game-changing not just for the building, but also for the city and the world.

“Eighty percent of the energy consumed in New York City is consumed by buildings,” says Malkin, who is president of Malkin Holdings, part-owner of the Empire State Building. “Not by cars, not by buses, not by taxis, not by subways, not by trains. Even more interestingly, 20 percent of the buildings consume 80 percent of that energy. So 64 percent of all energy consumed in New York City is consumed by 20 percent of the buildings. That really took me by surprise.”

The Empire State Building fell into that energy-sucking 20 percent, so perhaps it was no surprise that the Clinton Climate Initiative took an interest in the building. In 2007, a representative for CCI approached Malkin seeking a building in which to demonstrate the foundation’s green retrofit program. Malkin was in the midst of a massive renovation project spanning his company’s entire portfolio, so he offered up a building at Broadway and 35th street in Midtown Manhattan.

The CCI pressed for something bigger. If it could turn the world-renowned Empire State into a model for efficiency, the whole world would take notice. At the time, the Empire State Building consumed the same amount of energy as 40,000 single-family homes, a figure that is unfortunately not unique; 43 percent of office space in New York City was constructed before the end of World War II, much of it comprising that 20 percent of buildings consuming the majority of the city’s energy. Greening the Empire State Building and skyscrapers like it wouldn’t just benefit real estate owners and their tenants; it would significantly move the dial on the entire city’s energy consumption.

Malkin agreed for reasons both altruistic and self-interested. “This is all about making money,” Malkin says bluntly of the retrofit. “To me, the whole concept of ‘green’ is a misnomer. The world is getting greenwashed. If you can’t prove it economically, it doesn’t matter.” Malkin and the CCI set out to prove not only that enhanced energy efficiency is a cost-effective means of controlling expenses, but to create an economically feasible model that can be implemented by any building anywhere.

“If we succeeded only at the Empire State Building, we failed,” Malkin says. “It had to be broadly adoptable and malleable, and it had to be quantitative." To create a cost-effective retrofit regimen, the project would have to be carefully managed. Malkin and the Empire State Building brought in technology and management experts from Johnson Controls and real estate consultants Jones Lang Lasalle, as well as the green-thinkers at the Rocky Mountain Institute, to craft a suite of technologies that not only incrementally reduce energy consumption but that have a multiplying effect on one another that generates further efficiency.

For Paul Rode, business development director for building efficiency at Johnson Controls, this synergistic effect was crucial. The retrofit team considered more than 60 off-the-shelf technologies and practices. They came up with eight initiatives that together were more effective than the sum of their parts. “If we take any one of these items out, the overall reduction values of the others change disproportionately,” he says.

The technology package attacks the problem from three sides. First, the team found ways to reduce the existing load on the building’s infrastructure by rehabbing the windows, installing better insulation behind the more than 6,500 radiators in the building and outfitting offices with occupancy sensors, better lighting controls, and layouts that maximize natural daylight. They also improved the efficiency of existing systems, retrofitting (rather than replacing) the chiller plant and replacing old air handling equipment with fewer and more efficient units.

The third component entails smartly controlling energy use. New York City’s tallest building is now home to America’s largest wireless control system. Carbon dioxide sensors throughout the building determine exactly how much outside air needs to be brought into the building at a given time, cutting down on unnecessary circulation, and occupancy sensors allow the building to better allocate air and manage lighting. And the Empire State's wireless thermostat sensors, unlike the hard-wired variety, can be moved around an office space to ensure they are placed where the temperature is average (rather than, say, tucked behind the copier or coffee machine where they record a falsely warm ambient temperature).

The same occupancy sensors that manage air allocation and lighting also tell the building’s management which offices are leaving the lights or the coffee maker on when no one is around. Offices are individually metered – and billed – and metering information is archived and provided to tenants online so they can see when and how they are using the most energy. That kind of meaningful information helps tenants manage thier behaviors to trim their own energy use – and expense. The Empire State Building's management is a partner in the entire process, helping each tenant figure out how it can reduce its load on the building.

“Tenants are drawn to us because tenants’ largest three expenses are salary, rent, and utilities,” Malkin says. “The ability to control expense is extremely important. The work that we are doing is not just from the perspective of our own building systems, but we’ve created a suite of services to help tenants achieve things that give them tremendous payback for their own spaces, their own investments.”

As for Malkin’s investment, he’s paying out $13.4 million incrementally for the retrofit, an investment that should save him $4.4 million per year. That means his capital investment in green tech will pay for itself in just three years, two years ahead of schedule. And by creating a competitive advantage for tenants, the building creates a monetary incentive for tenants to be conscious of their own energy consumption. Which, as Malkin is quick to point out, is how you really initiate change. “It’s not just about doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing,” he says. “It’s about making money by doing the right thing.”

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