The skyscraper at the heart of the debate over America’s green building standard

One Bryant Park has become ground zero in the battle over Leed, with some critics claiming the tower highlights the green certification's shortcomings

The skyscraper at One Bryant Park in Manhattan looks like a vision of the future - or at least, what the movies tell us the future will look like. A towering 945 feet of glass, concrete and steel, arranged in crystalline planes, it evokes utopian visions of space-aged cities, hyper-efficient and cutting-edge.

But the building is cutting-edge beyond the surface too, reflecting the latest trends in sustainable construction: its urinals are waterless, its concrete is partially composed of blast furnace slag and its water system recycles rainwater. Completed in 2009, the billion-dollar building was the first skyscraper to be awarded a coveted platinum rating for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or Leed.