Life Sciences Research Building

35 W 34th Street, Chicago IL, 60616 Find on Google Maps

Chicago Building ID: 256439

Building Info

Square Footage: 103,000 sqft
0.7x median
139,707 sqft
0.9x median College/University
119,629 sqft
Built: 1943
Primary Property Type: College/University
Community Area: Douglas
Chicago Energy Rating: 1.0 / 4
Owner

Emissions & Energy Information for 2021

Greenhouse Gas Intensity: 80.7 kg CO₂e / sqft
13x median
6.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
10x median College/University
8.4 kg CO₂e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions: 8,317.1 metric tons CO₂ eq.
9x median
885.8 metric tons CO₂ eq.
9x median College/University
952.6 metric tons CO₂ eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity: 1,439.7 kBtu / sqft
11x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
8x median College/University
173.4 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity: 1,309.6 kBtu / sqft
17x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
14x median College/University
93.1 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use: 0 kBtu
Median Chicago Building
5,818,399.6 kBtu
Median College/University
4,847,201 kBtu
This Building Uses District Heating ❗
Although this building didn't burn any natural gas on site, it's connected to a district heating system, a centralized system for heating multiple buildings. District heating systems can be fully electric, but in Chicago most district heating systems are natural gas powered, meaning this building was most likely still heated with natural gas.
Electricity Use: 8,331,223.7 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $349,000 for 2021**
2.2x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
1.7x median College/University
4,940,922.2 kBtu
District Steam Use: 33,422,232 kBtu
Most buildings don't use district steam, so we don't currently have comparison data.
District Chilled Water Use: 93,130,715 kBtu
Most buildings don't use district chilling, so we don't currently have comparison data.

* Note on Rankings: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2022, which only applies to buildings over 50,000 square feet.

** Note on Bill Estimates: Estimates for gas and electric bills are based on average electric and gas retail prices for Chicago in 2021 and are rounded. We expect large buildings would negotiate lower rates with utilities, but these estimates serve as an upper bound of cost and help understand the volume of energy a building is used by comparing it to your own energy bills! See our Chicago Gas & Electric Costs Source for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data

What Should We Do About This?

Practically every building has room to improve with energy efficiency upgrades like insulation, switching to ENERGY STAR rated appliances, and more, but for any buildings with large natural gas use, we recommend one thing: electrify!

In other words, buildings should look to move all on-site uses of fossil fuels (including space heating, water heating, and cooking) to electrically powered systems like industrial grade heat pumps, heat pump water heaters, and induction stoves. With Illinois' current electric supply, just using the same amount of energy from electricity, rather than natural gas (aka methane) will dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is because Illinois' grid in 2020 was already 67% carbon-free (see Illinois - Power | DecarbMyState ). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel .

You can help make this a reality by talking to building owners and letting them know that a building's emissions are important to you, and that you want to see their building become fully electric and stop emitting greenhouse gases. Particularly for buildings you have a financial stake in (like your university, work, condo building, or apartment building) your voice in concert with your fellow building users can have a huge impact.

Additional Resources

See some additional resources on improving energy efficiency and understanding this data: