Here is an in-depth look at the world’s top five existing ecological skyscrapers. These architectural masterpieces are excellent examples of ways that modern building techniques can both reduce energy consumption and at the same time remain attractive.

Today’s ecological skyscrapers belong to an emerging area of design research in which the environmental impact of the building and issues of
sustainability influence every scale and system of a tall building. Recent concerns with environmental issues have prompted skyscraper designs that employ a range of strategies to conserve energy, minimize buildings’ impact on their surroundings, and ensure that the building materials used to construct them will be recyclable in the future.

A few design firms are taking the lead in this area of design research, designing buildings in which the design’s success or failure is determined by its relationship to the environment.

Conde Nast Building (Fox and Fowle, New York, 1999)

Built as part of the renaissance of Times Square, the Conde Nast building is also the first ecologically designed North American skyscraper. AT the time of its construction, high-rise buildings rarely addressed environmental issues. Today, many of its innovations are considered standard for office buildings.

A monumental catalyst for the ear, this is the first office building to be developed by the 42nd Street Development Corporation, a public/private consortium established to promote the redevelopment of Times Square. Located on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, the Conde Nast building straddles the glitzy Times Square entertainment area to the west and the corporate Midtown area to the east.

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Designed with two distinct faces, the west and north facades respond to Times Square with the glitter and technology of metal and glass, while the east and south facades respond to the corporate context with a historical stone façade, creating, according to the architect’s description, a “marriage of pop culture and corporate dignity.”

At street level, the tower’s lobby, with its dramatically curved ceiling, connects 42nd and 43rd streets, drawing visitors through the building. Responding to the Times Square zoning ordinance, the building’s base is covered with billboards and neon sign age.

This building sets new standards in energy conservation, indoor environmental quality, recycling systems, and the use of sustainable materials. The large glazed-glass areas of curtain wall maximize daylight penetration. The curtain-wall glazing incorporates a low-E coating to filter out unwanted ultraviolet light while minimizing heat gain and loss. Photovoltaic panels are integrated in the spandrel areas on the upper floors of the east and south faces, generating a meager but symbolic amount of electricity by day.

Sophisticated mechanical systems ensure high indoor air quality by introducing filtered fresh air to the office environment. Tenant guidelines produced by the architects established environmental standards for lighting, power usage, furniture systems, carpet, fabrics, finishes, and maintenance materials to ensure indoor air quality, and also to serve as a comprehensive strategy to maintain environmental sustainability for the life of the building.

This pastiche of environmentalism, historicism, futurism, and commercialism creates a complex architectural organism. Indeed, the arguments for energy conservation seem out of place in a neighborhood like Times Square, which is predicated on a spectacular excess of energy-consuming visual pyrotechnics. A difficult first in the realm of ecological skyscraper design, it anticipates the next generation of ecologically sensitive North American skyscrapers.

Deutsche Post AG (Murphy/Jahn, Bonn, 2001)

This sleek tower housing the new headquarters for the Deutsche Post is exemplary of a kind of sustainable design practice that achieves the goal of environmentally sensitive architecture without sacrificing aesthetics or occupant comfort. The tower rethinks the skyscraper as a building type by focusing on the integration of function, technology, and user comfort to create an architecture of “high technology and low energy.”

The tower is made up of two curved semicircular masses connected by glass bridges. The connecting floors, at nine-story intervals, form atrium sky gardens which are naturally ventilated and serve as interior communal spaces. A skylight annex houses additional public spaces at the base of the tower, and is clad in a “smart skin” of glass and integrated photovoltaic panels.