135 West 50th St.-RDA

How does 135 West 50th St.-RDA compare with other office buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 3,384 office buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 135 West 50th St.-RDA's ENERGY STAR score of 98 compares with an average of 72 across the 2,519 that report a score; it scores higher than 92% of them and lower than 6%. Its site EUI of 36.7 kBtu/ft² is about 43% below the average of 64.5 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 2.9 kgCO₂e/ft² is about half of the group average of 5.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 751,395 sq ft, it is about 266% above the average floor area of 205,440 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1962, 22 years later than the group's average year built (1940). Across all 24 jurisdictions BuildingCensus covers, the 15,264 office buildings average an ENERGY STAR score of 73 and a site EUI of 59.3 kBtu/ft².

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 New York City, 43% 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. 135 West 50th St.-RDA's 36.7 kBtu/ft² across 751,395 sq ft works out to about 27.6 billion Btu (8,082 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 61.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 2,507,562 kWh of electricity and 21,204 therms of natural gas for the year.

Which law requires 135 West 50th St.-RDA to report its energy use?

135 West 50th St.-RDA reports under Local Law 84 (LL84), the legal basis of New York City's Energy and Water Data Disclosure program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record nyc:53890293:2024). Under Local Law 97, buildings over 25,000 sq ft face carbon caps with fines of $268 per metric ton of CO₂e over the limit, phasing in from 2024.