http://www.costar.com/News/Article.a...DB86D89D007F71
At Empire State Building, Green Future Merging with Past
Sustainability and Business Will Coexist Profitably as the Building Becomes 40% More Energy Efficient, Officials Say
By Andrew C. Burr
April 8, 2009
One of the most enduring symbols of the 20th century, the Empire State Building, is being revamped for the energy-conscious 21st century.
Under a plan announced this week, energy consumption at the 102-story tower would be reduced by nearly 40 percent over the next four years, saving $4.4 million annually in energy costs and earning the building two prestigious environmental markers: the government’s Energy Star label and the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED certification for sustainability, project officials said.
If those goals are achieved, few high-rises in the country -- new or old -- would come close to matching the energy efficiency or energy cost savings at the pre-war tower.
...Kept secret for nearly two years, details of the retrofit were revealed Monday at a news conference hosted by Anthony E. Malkin, president of Wien & Malkin, which oversees the building for the Malkin family and the Helmsley estate, the building’s co-owners.
With New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and former President Clinton seated to his right, Malkin used his first few words to set the stakes.
“I’m Anthony Malkin, and on behalf of the Empire State Building Company, welcome to the world’s most famous office building,” he said.
The retrofit is significant not only for the tower’s celebrity, which is already drawing international attention to the project, but also for its ambition. Retrofits of older buildings can be intrusive and costly, and the size of the Empire State Building -- 1,250 feet tall and roughly 2.6 million square feet -- presented other challenges.
When the project completes in 2013, the building will be in the 90th percentile of energy efficient properties in the United States, Jones Lang LaSalle said. Work has already started, and the building’s energy use is expected to decrease by almost 20 percent during the next two years, when most of the measures will be implemented. Carbon dioxide emissions from the building are being slashed by 105,000 metric tons over a period of 15 years.