Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW

How does Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW compare with other multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC?

The latest disclosures cover 1,799 multifamily housing buildings in Washington, DC, out of 6,870 buildings citywide. Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW's ENERGY STAR score of 95 compares with an average of 72 across the 1,618 that report a score; it scores higher than 82% of them and lower than 16%. Its site EUI of 50.4 kBtu/ft² is roughly in line with the average of 51.1 kBtu/ft² — it uses less energy per square foot than the typical building in that group. Its emissions intensity of 3.4 kgCO₂e/ft² is about 12% below the group average of 3.8 kgCO₂e/ft².

At 63,758 sq ft, it is about half of the average floor area of 136,346 sq ft for those buildings. It was built in 1939, 26 years earlier than the group's average year built (1965). 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 Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW's energy performance changed over time?

BuildingCensus holds 12 Washington, DC disclosures for Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW, covering report years 2013–2024. Its ENERGY STAR score went from 60 in 2014 to 95 in 2024 (+35 points). Site EUI moved from 86.8 kBtu/ft² (2013) to 50.4 kBtu/ft² (2024), a 42% decrease. Reported emissions went from 374 tCO₂e to 213 tCO₂e over the same span (down 43%).

What does an ENERGY STAR score of 95 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 95 means the building performs better than about 95% of its national peers. BuildingCensus bands the score into report-card grades; 95 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 Washington, DC, 47% 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. Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW's 50.4 kBtu/ft² across 63,758 sq ft works out to about 3.2 billion Btu (942 MWh-equivalent) in 2024. Its source EUI of 86.6 kBtu/ft² also counts the energy lost generating and delivering that power, which is why it is higher. The disclosure also reports 359,664 kWh of electricity, 19,880 therms of natural gas and 3,854 thousand gallons of water for the year.

Which law requires Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW to report its energy use?

Hightowers Condominium - 1530 16th St. NW reports under the Clean and Affordable Energy Act / BEPS, the legal basis of Washington, DC's Building Energy Benchmarking program, which publishes each covered building's annual benchmarking results. The record shown here is the report-year 2024 disclosure (source record dc:PM4013984:2024). DC's Building Energy Performance Standards (BEPS) require buildings below the performance standard to improve over compliance cycles (the first ends December 31, 2026; later cycles run five years), with penalties for buildings that fail to meet their pathway.