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Grand Plaza 

540 N State St, Chicago IL, 60654 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 158227

Building Info

Square Footage
1,640,000 sqft
#43 Largest
#5 Largest of Multifamily Housing Buildings
12x median
139,707 sqft
11x median Multifamily Housing
144,765 sqft
Built
2003
Primary Property Type
Multifamily Housing
Community Area
Near North Side
Owner
Not Tagged

Emissions & Energy Information for 2022

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
7.2 kg CO2e / sqft
Higher than 65% of all buildings
1.1x median
6.4 kg CO2e / sqft
1.3x median Multifamily Housing
5.7 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
8,005 metric tons CO2 eq.
#7 Highest of Multifamily Housing Buildings 🚨
Higher than 96% of all buildings
9x median
885.8 metric tons CO2 eq.
10x median Multifamily Housing
770.6 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
144.9 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 62% of all buildings
1.1x median
132.2 kBtu / sqft
1.2x median Multifamily Housing
117.9 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
95.3 kBtu / sqft
Higher than 71% of all buildings
1.2x median
78.4 kBtu / sqft
1.3x median Multifamily Housing
73.7 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
62,596,113.4 kBtu
Est. Gas Bill: $746,000 for 2022**
#15 Highest of Multifamily Housing Buildings 🚩
Higher than 98% of all buildings
11x median
5,818,399.6 kBtu
10x median Multifamily Housing
6,538,862.3 kBtu
Electricity Use
29,847,701.2 kBtu
Est. Electric Bill: $1,251,000 for 2022**
Higher than 94% of all buildings
8x median
3,796,376.7 kBtu
10x median Multifamily Housing
2,848,153.7 kBtu
District Chilled Water Use
14,210,040.2 kBtu

Most buildings don't use district chilling, so we don't currently have comparison data.

Historical Data

Year Floor Area sqft Chicago Energy
Rating
Energy Star
Score
GHG Intensity kg CO2e / sqft Source EUI kBtu / sqft Electricity Use kBtu Natural Gas Use kBtu
2015 1,119,317 - 18 10.7184.034,075,48063,664,773
2016 1,119,317 - 30 10.2184.633,487,26562,013,184
2017 1,119,317 - 31 9.9178.433,276,14859,888,634
2018 1,119,317 1.0 15 10.7193.733,285,31589,954,843
2019 1,119,317 1.0 29 9.4167.332,385,12066,319,239
2020 1,640,000 - - 8.5157.430,176,47863,799,037
2021 1,640,000 - - 8.2157.029,637,99662,777,625
2022 1,640,000 - - 7.2144.929,847,70162,596,113

* 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 (opens in a new tab) for the original statistics.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data (opens in a new tab)

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 (opens in a new tab)). This has already been done across the country with a variety of buildings, large and small, like the Hotel Marcel (opens in a new tab).

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: