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Albert Merritt Billings 

950 East 59th St, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 250124

⚠️ This building did not report data in 2022, this data is from 2019, the latest year reported

Building Info

Square Footage
488,322 sqft
3.5x median
139,707 sqft
1.9x median Office
259,000 sqft
Built
1927
Primary Property Type
Office
Community Area
Hyde Park
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information for 2019

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
7.9 kg CO2e / sqft
1.2x median
6.4 kg CO2e / sqft
1.1x median Office
6.9 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
3,880.9 metric tons CO2 eq.
4.4x median
885.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
2.1x median Office
1,832.2 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
136 kBtu / sqft
1.0x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.0x median Office
142.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
63.2 kBtu / sqft
0.8x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
1.0x median Office
66.3 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
Not Reported

This data was not reported for this building, which likely means a value of zero for this field.

Electricity Use
18,328,779.5 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $768,000 for 2019**
4.8x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
1.8x median Office
10,340,763.6 kBtu
District Steam Use
12,525,060 kBtu

Most buildings don't use district steam, so we don't currently have comparison data.

Historical Data

Year Floor Area sqft Chicago Energy
Rating
Energy Star
Score
GHG Intensity kg CO2e / sqft GHG Emissions metric tons CO2e Source EUI kBTU / sqft Electricity Use kBTU Natural Gas Use kBTU District Steam Use kBTU
2014 488,322 - 83 10.475,111170.019,456,661- 18,101,040
2015 488,322 - 84 10.14,946163.419,625,237- 15,104,100
2016 488,322 - 81 10.04,870.4172.619,808,246- 18,363,719
2017 488,322 - 88 8.64,194.9147.718,541,951- 11,545,980
2018 488,322 3.5 67 7.93,855.3134.918,517,879- 11,665,380
2019 488,322 4.0 73 7.93,880.9136.018,328,779- 12,525,060
Total GHG Emissions (metric tons CO2e)

* Note on Rankings: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2022, which only applies to buildings over 50,000 square feet.

** Note on Bill Estimates: Estimates for gas and electric bills are based on average electric and gas retail prices for Chicago in 2021 and are rounded. We expect large buildings would negotiate lower rates with utilities, but these estimates serve as an upper bound of cost and help understand the volume of energy a building is used by comparing it to your own energy bills! See our Chicago Gas & Electric Costs Source (opens in a new tab) for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)

What Should We Do About This?

Practically every building has room to improve with energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, switching to ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and more, but for any buildings with large natural gas use, we recommend one thing: electrify!

In other words, buildings should look to move all on-site uses of fossil fuels (including space heating, water heating, and cooking) to electrically powered systems like industrial grade heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and induction stoves. With Illinois' current electric supply, just using the same amount of energy from electricity, rather than natural gas (aka methane) will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is because Illinois' grid in 2020 was already 67% carbon-free (see Illinois - Power | DecarbMyState (opens in a new tab)). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel (opens in a new tab).

You can help make this a reality by talking to building owners and letting them know that a building's emissions are important to you, and that you want to see their building become fully electric and stop emitting greenhouse gases. Particularly for buildings you have a financial stake in (like your university, work, condo building, or apartment building) your voice in concert with your fellow building users can have a huge impact.

Additional Resources

See some additional resources on improving energy efficiency and understanding this data: