OK, so use your example. The Empire State Building was 2/3 the price, took 1/3 the time, and hilariously, from Wikipedia: "The magazine Time found out in August

OK, so use your example. The Empire State Building was 2/3 the price, took 1/3 the time, and hilariously, from Wikipedia: "The magazine Time found out in August 2013 that the Bank of America Tower used twice as much energy overall as the Empire State Building did, due to the large energy usage in the Bank of America Tower and the comparatively small occupancy rate of the Empire State Building." Even if you want to throw in the $120 million for fixing the Empire State Building's energy efficiency in 2009, it still doesn't say great things for modern productivity.