19-21 Garden Street

How does 19-21 Garden Street compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge?

The latest disclosures cover 187 multifamily housing buildings in Cambridge, out of 902 buildings citywide. 19-21 Garden Street's ENERGY STAR score of 84 compares with an average of 75 across the 155 that report a score; it scores higher than 50% of them and lower than 49%. Its site EUI of 73.2 kBtu/ft² is about 29% above the average of 56.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group.

At 121,527 sq ft, it is roughly in line with the average floor area of 132,415 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1900, 73 years earlier than the group's average year built (1973). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 59,945 multifamily housing buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 70 and a site EUI of 59.0 kBtu/ft².

How has 19-21 Garden Street's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 10 Cambridge disclosures for 19-21 Garden Street, covering report years 2015–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 24 in 2015 to 84 in 2024 (+60 points); its best year on file was 2023, at 88. Site EUI moved from 140.5 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 73.2 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 48% decrease. Reported emissions went from 492 tCO₂e to 490 tCO₂e over the same span (down 0%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 84 mean?

ENERGY STAR scores run from 1 to 100 and are computed by the EPA's Portfolio Manager as a percentile against similar buildings nationwide, adjusted for climate, size and use: a score of 84 means the building performs better than about 84% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 84 falls in band B — above median (70–84). Scores of 75 or higher meet the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification; certification itself is a separate, verified application that the disclosure does not record. In Cambridge, 50% of scored buildings are at 75 or above.

Site energy-use intensity (EUI) is the energy a building uses on site in a year divided by its floor area, in thousand Btu per square foot — lower is more efficient. 19-21 Garden Street's 73.2 kBtu/ft² across 121,527 sq ft works out to about 8.9 billion Btu (2,607 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 90.4 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 275,865 kWh of electricity, 79,523 therms of natural gas and 1,977 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 19-21 Garden Street to report its energy use?

19-21 Garden Street reports under BEUDO, the legal basis of Cambridge's Building Energy Use Disclosure Ordinance (BEUDO), which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record cambridge:B1626:2024). Cambridge's 2023 BEUDO amendments require non-residential buildings of 100,000+ sq ft to reach net-zero emissions by 2035 (reductions starting 2026) and those of 25,000–100,000 sq ft by 2050 (starting 2030).