635 Riverside Drive

How does 635 Riverside Drive 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. 635 Riverside Drive's ENERGY STAR score of 86 compares with an average of 63 across the 22,829 that report a score; it scores higher than 71% of them and lower than 28%. Its site EUI of 85.8 kBtu/ft² is about 15% 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 4.8 kgCO₂e/ft² is roughly in line with the group average of 5.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 107,701 sq ft, it is roughly in line with the average floor area of 100,951 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1912, 40 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 86 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 86 means the building performs better than about 86% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 86 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. 635 Riverside Drive's 85.8 kBtu/ft² across 107,701 sq ft works out to about 9.2 billion Btu (2,708 MWh-equivalent) in 2022. Its source EUI of 104.8 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 264,896 kWh of electricity and 6,880 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires 635 Riverside Drive to report its energy use?

635 Riverside Drive 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 2022 disclosure (source record nyc:10836323:2022). 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.