Global Warming Issues

The bright lights of the big city are getting a little bit duller — with just a hint of green.

Motion sensors ensure that unoccupied offices, storerooms and canteens go dark after workers and cleaning crews leave at night. Dimmers soften overhead lights that once could burn only bright or not at all. Timers guarantee that buildings fade to black while the city sleeps.

Gone are the days when cheap electricity, primitive lighting technology and landlords’ desire to showcase their skyscrapers kept floor after floor of the city’s highest towers glowing into the night. Now, rising energy costs, conservationism, stricter building codes and sophisticated lighting systems have conspired to slowly, often imperceptibly, transform Manhattan’s venerable nightscape into one with a gentler glow.

Instead of tower after tower shining at all hours — the World Trade Center stayed aglow long after its occupants went home — the skyline is becoming a patchwork of sparsely sparkling buildings decorated with ornamentally lighted tops.

“The tall tower with the illuminated floors on all night long is probably a thing of the past,” said Randy Sabedra, the owner of RS Lighting Design, who is helping to create a new map of the city’s most prominently lighted buildings. “You’re not relying on the glowing floors to have the building presence. It is relying on the crown of light.”

Since electricity set it ablaze more than a century ago, the skyline has dimmed a number of times. During World War II and the energy crisis of the 1970s, New Yorkers considered it patriotic to turn out lights. But such frugality disappeared once times were flush again (though the current troubles could leave more office space vacant, and thus dark).

The building boom of the last decade, the ever-expanding electronic billboards of Times Square and unshielded traffic lights have solidified New York’s status as one of the country’s most light-polluted cities, according to the International Dark-Sky Association, which has pushed for city and state legislation to turn the lights down.

New York scores a 9 on the 9-point Bortle Dark-Sky Scale, the association’s favored measure, along with other major cities like Houston and Las Vegas; a typical suburban sky ranks a 5, while Tucson, which has stringent outdoor lighting codes, is also a 5.

Illumination Overkill

“The light bulb has not really gone on in their head yet,” Susan Harder, who runs the association’s New York section, said of city officials. “We’ll always have an iconic skyline, but we don’t need this big glow over the city.”

To that end, the State Assembly passed legislation in June requiring that new outdoor lighting have shields that reduce glare and waste; the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal, a Manhattan Democrat, said it would most likely be taken up by the State Senate if the Democrats manage to win a majority on Tuesday (Republicans currently hold a one-seat advantage).

City Councilman Alan J. Gerson has introduced a variety of similar measures — to require full streetlight shields and motion detectors in all commercial and government buildings, and to mandate more efficiently lighted billboards. The first of the proposals could be taken up as early as this month.

“The sky won’t be totally dark,” Ms. Rosenthal said. “But it’s 2008, so we have to take into account energy concerns.”

In many ways, the business community is ahead of the politicians. Several of the city’s newest skyscrapers incorporate cutting-edge technologies that appeal to environmentalists — and those eager to keep energy costs down. Landlords have found that meeting stiffer energy efficiency standards in their new and refurbished buildings is a selling point with tenants, especially those that pay their own electricity bills.

“This time, the difference is that we’re more conscious of what we’re doing and the lighting industry is more advanced,” said Meg Smith, a manager in New York for Lightolier, a manufacturer that specializes in lighting fixtures and controls.
 

One Response to “Efficiency’s Mark: City Glitters a Little Less”

Leave a Reply