Albert Merritt Billings

950 East 59th St, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 250124

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
Chicago Energy Rating: 4.0 / 4
Energy Star Score: 73 / 100
Owner

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	10.47	5,111	170.0	19,456,661	-	18,101,040
2015	488,322	-	84	10.1	4,946	163.4	19,625,237	-	15,104,100
2016	488,322	-	81	10.0	4,870.4	172.6	19,808,246	-	18,363,719
2017	488,322	-	88	8.6	4,194.9	147.7	18,541,951	-	11,545,980
2018	488,322	3.5	67	7.9	3,855.3	134.9	18,517,879	-	11,665,380
2019	488,322	4.0	73	7.9	3,880.9	136.0	18,328,779	-	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 for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data

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 ). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel .

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: