The Washington at Woodlawn Park

How does The Washington at Woodlawn Park 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. The Washington at Woodlawn Park's ENERGY STAR score of 98 compares with an average of 62 across the 1,472 that report a score; it scores higher than 93% of them and lower than 4%. Its site EUI of 39.0 kBtu/ft² is about half of the average of 72.0 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 2.6 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 55% below the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 306,951 sq ft, it is about 49% above the average floor area of 206,097 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1911, 60 years earlier 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 The Washington at Woodlawn Park's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 6 Chicago disclosures for The Washington at Woodlawn Park, covering report years 2018–2023. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 100 in 2022 to 98 in 2023 (-2 points); its best year on file was 2022, at 100. Site EUI moved from 24.6 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 39.0 kBtu/ft² (2023), an 59% increase. Reported emissions went from 555 tCO₂e to 799 tCO₂e over the same span (up 44%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 98 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 98 means the building performs better than about 98% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 98 falls in band A — high performer (85–100). 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 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. The Washington at Woodlawn Park's 39.0 kBtu/ft² across 306,951 sq ft works out to about 12 billion Btu (3,508 MWh-equivalent) in 2023. Its source EUI of 51.7 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 553,393 kWh of electricity, 100,758 therms of natural gas and 6,501 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires The Washington at Woodlawn Park to report its energy use?

The Washington at Woodlawn Park 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:174247:2023). Covered buildings that fail to benchmark and report face fines of up to $100 plus $25 per day of violation under the ordinance.