Prairie House at Central Station

How does Prairie House at Central Station compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Chicago?

The latest disclosures cover 1,515 multifamily housing buildings in Chicago, out of 3,852 buildings citywide. Prairie House at Central Station's ENERGY STAR score of 41 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 23% of them and lower than 77%. Its site EUI of 76.4 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 72.0 kBtu/ft². Its emissions intensity of 7.1 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 22% above the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 273,040 sq ft, it is about 32% above the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 2001, 30 years later than the group's average year built (1971). 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 Prairie House at Central Station's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 9 Chicago disclosures for Prairie House at Central Station, covering report years 2015–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 26 in 2015 to 41 in 2023 (+15 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 49. Site EUI moved from 89.8 kBtu/ft² (2015) to 76.4 kBtu/ft² (2023), a 15% decrease. Reported emissions went from 2,861 tCO₂e to 1,935 tCO₂e over the same span (down 32%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 41 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 41 means the building performs better than about 41% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 41 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 34 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. In Chicago, 35% 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. Prairie House at Central Station's 76.4 kBtu/ft² across 273,040 sq ft works out to about 20.9 billion Btu (6,114 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 141.3 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 2,792,803 kWh of electricity and 113,312 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires Prairie House at Central Station to report its energy use?

Prairie House at Central Station reports under the Building Energy Use Benchmarking Ordinance, the legal basis of the Chicago Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2023 disclosure (source record chicago:157602:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.