in the late 1960"s, many people in north america turned their attention 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.
摩天大樓與環境
60年代後期，許多北美人把註意力轉向了環境問題，那些嶄新的玻璃鋼摩天大樓受到了廣泛的批評。 生態學家指出，城市中密集的高層建築經常給公共交通與停車場的承載能力造成過重的負擔。
摩天大樓還是電能的過度消費者與浪費者。 最近的某一年，紐約市摩天寫字樓1，700萬英尺辦公面積的增加使電能的最高日需求量提高了120，000千瓦。 這些電能足以供紐約的整個奧爾巴尼市使用一天。 玻璃表面的摩天大樓特別地浪費。 通過半英寸的平板玻璃牆壁損失(或增加)的熱量是典型的加入絕緣板的石牆所允許的熱量損失(或增加)的十倍以上。 為了減輕取暖設備或空調設備的壓力，摩天大樓的建造者們已經開始使用雙面上釉的玻璃鑲板和塗上了金色或銀色反光薄膜的反光玻璃，來減少強光照射和熱量的增加;但是，鏡面的摩天大樓會提高周圍空氣的溫度並會對附近的建築物產生影響。
摩天大樓也對城市的衛生設施造成了沉重的壓力。 單單紐約市的二個世界貿易中心大樓如果完全被佔滿的話，每年就會產生2，250，000加侖的污水。 這相當于康涅狄格州的斯坦福市這樣大的城市一年所產生的污水量，而康州的斯坦福市擁有109，000人口。