(DNAINFO)  Nicole Levy — It’s common knowledge that boats need ballasts to keep them st eady in high winds. It turns out skyscrapers need them, too.

As Manhattan developers build ever taller, skinnier skyscrapers on ever smaller Midtown lots for multimillionaires seeking aerials views of Central Park, those buildings are more likely to sway at the top, the New York Times reports.

On your average breezy day, a 1000-foot-tall building can drift a couple inches, and on the rare day a 50-mile-per-hour wind blows through the city, it can move about half a foot. That motion isn’t putting the building’s occupants in any danger, but it might make them a bit dizzy.

The solution, developers and engineers tell the Times, is the installation of giant counterweights or dampening systems at the tops of buildings.

Source: Did You Know? Developers Are Installing Skyscraper Counterweights – Midtown – DNAinfo.com New York