161 Lexington Avenue

How does 161 Lexington Avenue compare with other multifamily housing buildings in New York City?

The latest disclosures cover 33,022 multifamily housing buildings in New York City, out of 48,310 buildings citywide. 161 Lexington Avenue's ENERGY STAR score of 2 compares with an average of 63 across the 22,829 that report a score; it scores higher than 3% of them and lower than 97%. Its site EUI of 104.6 kBtu/ft² is about 40% above the average of 74.9 kBtu/ft² — it uses more energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 9.5 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 83% above the group average of 5.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 51,953 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 100,951 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1908, 44 years earlier than the group's average year built (1952). 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.

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 2 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 2 means the building performs better than about 2% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 2 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 73 points below 75, the threshold for ENERGY STAR certification. 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. 161 Lexington Avenue's 104.6 kBtu/ft² across 51,953 sq ft works out to about 5.4 billion Btu (1,593 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 183.7 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 664,336 kWh of electricity for the year.

Which law requires 161 Lexington Avenue to report its energy use?

161 Lexington Avenue 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:50346293:2024). 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.