Skip to Main Content

International House 
🏆

1414 E 59th St, Chicago IL, 60637 Find on Google Maps (opens in a new tab)

Chicago Building ID: 254181

Building Info

Square Footage
237,121 sqft
Lower than 63% of all buildings
0.8x median
296,415 sqft
0.9x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
255,286 sqft
Built
1932
Primary Property Type
Residence Hall/Dormitory
Community Area
Hyde Park
Owner
University of Chicago
View All Tagged UChicago Buildings

Note: Owner manually tagged. Logo used under fair use.

Emissions & Energy Information

For 2020

Greenhouse Gas Intensity
6.1 kg CO2e / sqft
Lower than 79% of all buildings
0.8x median
7.7 kg CO2e / sqft
0.8x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
7.5 kg CO2e / sqft
Total Greenhouse Gas Emissions
1,456.6 metric tons CO2 eq.
Lower than 73% of all buildings
0.7x median
2,063.4 metric tons CO2 eq.
0.7x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
1,993.2 metric tons CO2 eq.
Source Energy Usage Intensity
111 kBtu / sqft
Lower than 81% of all buildings
0.8x median
143.1 kBtu / sqft
0.8x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
137.6 kBtu / sqft
Site Energy Usage Intensity
74.5 kBtu / sqft
Lower than 59% of all buildings
0.9x median
81.9 kBtu / sqft
0.9x median Residence Hall/Dormitory
79.3 kBtu / sqft
Natural Gas Use
192,393 kBtu
#27 Lowest in Chicago* 🏆
#1 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
1/64 median
12,367,856.3 kBtu
1/53 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
10,137,040.2 kBtu
Electricity Use
3,211,777 kBtu
#2 Lowest of Residence Hall/Dormitories 🏆
Lower than 94% of all buildings
1/3 median
8,755,592 kBtu
1/3 median Residence Hall/Dormitory
8,266,307.4 kBtu
District Steam Use
14,102,727.9 kBtu
1.1x median
12,791,107.2 kBtu
District Chilled Water Use
166,200 kBtu
1/58 median
9,674,280.5 kBtu

* Important Note: Rankings and medians are among included buildings, which are those who reported under the Chicago Energy Benchmarking Ordinance for the year 2020 with emissions greater than 1,000 metric tons.

Data Source: Chicago Energy Benchmarking Data Covered Buildings (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: