New Manhattan skyscraper is eco-friendly

Michael Douglas as his alter ego Gordon Gekko in the 80’s movie ‘Wall Street’, would shudder at the thought of what they are doing to his beloved little corner of Manhattan.

Some company is going to build a skyscraper that is environmentally friendly!

Whatever happened to “Greed is Good”?

A company by the name of Time Equities has broken ground on a new tower at “50 West Street”.

This new addition to the Lower Manhattan business district will cost $600 million and will contain 580,000-square-feet of floor space spread over 65 stories.

There will be offices, just less than 250 apartments and a hotel with 150 rooms, and the project will create 150 new permanent jobs.

This new high rise is going up in a tiny little corner of the US that is recession proof and has always been able to build huge edifices to show off its wealth, but on this occasion the builders are opting for a “green” approach, something that Gordon Gekko’s cash hungry associates would have scoffed at.

This is not the 80’s, twenty years later the climate (pun intended) is different, and even those hard nosed Wall Street money men are beginning to realise that there is a problem.

The new building designed by eco-friendly architect Helmut Jahn will use many cutting edge sustainable technologies, there will be great attention paid to non-water wasting pluming utilities, and there will be a “green roof”.

Computerised blinds will tilt open and closed to let in or keep out sunlight, to save on energy, as will a plethora of energy control systems built into the structure.

The glass tower will also use the latest in glass technologies, that can filter out UV rays while letting in daylight and outside heat.

Construction materials will be, as far as possible, renewable and sustainable, and even the waste produced in construction will be recycled to its maximum potential.

The company has already pledged $4.5 million to the city’s affordable housing project and several hundred thousand to other city public institutions. Gordon would turn in his grave.