to environmental problems, and new steel-and-glass skyscrapers were widely
criticized. Ecologists pointed out that a cluster of tall buildings in a
city often overburdens public transportation and parking lot capacities.
Skyscrapers are also lavish consumers, and wasters, of electric power. In
one recent year, the addition of 17 million square feet of skyscraper
office space in New York City raised the peak daily demand for electricity
by 120, 000 kilowatts -- enough to supply the entire city of Albany, New
York, for a day.
Glass-walled skyscrapers can be especially wasteful. The heat loss (or
gain) through a wall of half-inch plate glass is more than ten times
that through a typical masonry wall filled with insulation board. To
lessen the strain on heating and air-conditioning equipment, builders of
skyscrapers have begun to use double-glazed panels of glass, and reflective
glasses coated with silver or gold mirror films that reduce glare
as well as heat gain. However, mirror-walled skyscrapers raise the
temperature of the surrounding air and affect neighboring buildings.
Skyscrapers put a severe strain on a city's sanitation facilities, too. If
fully occupied, the two World Trade Center towers in New York City would
alone generate 2.25 million gallons of raw sewage each year -- as much as a
city the size of Stanford, Connecticut, which has a population of more than
109, 000.
摩天大楼与环境
60 年代后期，许多北美人把注意力转向了环境问题，那些崭新的玻璃钢摩
生态学家指出，城市中密集的高层建筑经常给公共交通与停车场的承载
天写字楼 1，700 万英尺办公面积的增加使电能的最高日需求量提高了 120，000 千瓦。 这
些电能足以供纽约的整个奥尔巴尼市使用一天。玻璃表面的摩天大楼特
英寸的平板玻璃墙壁损失(或增加)的热量是典型的加入绝缘板的石墙
为了减轻取暖设备或空调设备的压力，摩天大楼的建造者们已经开始使 用双面上釉的玻璃镶板和涂上了金色或银色反光薄膜的反光玻璃
增加；但是，镜面的摩天大楼会提高周围空气的温度并会对附近的建筑
单单纽约市的二个世界贸易中心大楼如果完全 被占满的话，每年就会产生 2，250，000 加仑的污水。 这相当于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市这
样大的城市一年所产生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市拥有 109，000 人口。
