Tower Gardens

How does Tower Gardens 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. Tower Gardens's ENERGY STAR score of 35 compares with an average of 63 across the 22,829 that report a score; it scores higher than 20% of them and lower than 79%. Its site EUI of 89.2 kBtu/ft² is about 19% 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 7.3 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 41% above the group average of 5.2 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 249,600 sq ft, it is about 147% above the average floor area of 100,951 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1960, 8 years later 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.

How has Tower Gardens's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 3 New York City disclosures for Tower Gardens, covering report years 2022–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 22 in 2022 to 35 in 2024 (+13 points). Site EUI moved from 108.5 kBtu/ft² (2022) to 89.2 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 18% decrease. Reported emissions went from 2,038 tCO₂e to 1,833 tCO₂e over the same span (down 10%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 35 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 35 means the building performs better than about 35% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 35 falls in band D — lowest band (1–54). It sits 40 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. Tower Gardens's 89.2 kBtu/ft² across 249,600 sq ft works out to about 22.3 billion Btu (6,525 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 125.1 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 1,422,465 kWh of electricity, 8,765 therms of natural gas and 16,634 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Tower Gardens to report its energy use?

Tower Gardens 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:4954471:2024). 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.