January 1, 2022
Central Park (or Nordstrom) Tower rises 1,550 feet in the air, and is the tallest primarily residential building in the world. It was begun in 2014 and completed last year at a cost of $3 billion. The impact on the environment is almost unimaginable; at one point 19 trucks carrying concrete were lined up to pour their content into the foundations. The manufacture of concrete is one of the greatest contributions to global warming.
Five hundred years earlier Leonardo Da Vinci and his shop of workers were painting the Mona Lisa. It took them 16 years, layering white paint, which reflects light, over darker colors, which absorbs it, creating a remarkable impression of depth to the entire painting—especially the eyes and lips, which of course interest us the most. It is a triumph of “engineering,” equal to that of Central Park Tower, but at zero cost to the environment in terms of global warming.