River City is a mixed-use, 16-story high rise with 448 condos, located within Chicago’s South Loop along the Chicago River. The name of this complex took on new meaning in June 2011, when the river overflowed its banks, and penetrated the buildings’ lower floors.
Two years later, the city of Chicago passed an ordinance requiring large commercial buildings of more than 50,000 sf to benchmark their energy consumption, and authorized the city to disclose those buildings’ energy efficiency publicly.
Those two events led the owners of River City to spend an estimated $7 million to upgrade the lighting and mechanicals in their complex.
“We decided that if we were going to do this, we’d do it right,” says Jim Sadowski, Director of Operations for Marc Realty, which owns the commercial part of River City and manages the buildings. (The residential part is owned by 800 South Wells Phase II River City Private Residential Condominium Association.)
River City is one of 17 existing multifamily properties to earn Energy Star certification, which became available to this sector on Sept. 16 via a scoring system for multifamily properties that Energy Star and Fannie Mae had been developing for three years. The partners announced the first set of certified multifamily buildings on Nov. 13.
Last year, Fannie’s Multifamily Mortgage Business launched its Green Initiative, and as of the first quarter of 2014 had provided $130 million in Green Preservation Plus loans or in loans that are backed by properties with a Green Building certification. Fannie Mae Multifamily Mortgage Business also partnered with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to deliver the 1 – 100 Energy Star score for multifamily properties.
For Eco Modern Flats: ECO Modern Flats in Arkansas lowered its annual energy consumption by 23% after undergoing a major renovation in 2010-2012 that included the installation of several energy- and water-saving products. Photo: courtesy U.S. EPA
Properties are scored, using Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager, on a scale of 1 to 100, which accounts for their energy use across fuel types and normalizes for weather, building characteristics, and business activities. The score represents the property’s percentage ranking compared with similar properties. Properties that score 75 or higher are eligible to earn Energy Star certification.
The goal of this initiative and scoring is to provide multifamily building owners and managers with tools to measure how much energy and water their buildings are consuming and/or wasting, and to be able to compare that performance to similar buildings nationwide.
About one-third of the U.S. population lives in the country’s 500,000 multifamily buildings, and spends about $22 billion on energy use annually. Energy costs for renters have risen 20% over the past decade. U.S. residential water costs rose by 75% in current dollars from 2000 to 2012.
In a survey of 1,000 multifamily properties it conducted in 2012, Fannie Mae found that the least efficient property was spending $165,000 more in annual energy costs than a similar property operating efficiently. The least efficient properties use over three times as much energy and six times as much water per square foot as the most efficient properties.
“Every multifamily property has the opportunity to make high performance property improvements,” wrote Fannie Mae in a September 2014 report titled Transforming Multifamily Housing. “If the entire U.S. multifamily housing stock reduced electricity usage by 15% and natural gas usage by 30%, the annual aggregate cost savings would total more than $3.3 billion.”
Among the first 17 multifamily buildings to earn certification, five were built in the 1920s, belying the notion that older buildings can’t be retrofitted to meet modern high-performance standards. It’s also worth noting that all but one of the certified buildings are located in metros whose local governments are actively attempting to curtail greenhouse gas emissions from their built environments.
River City people image: Jim Sadowski (left), operations chief for Marc Realty, with James Wasniewski, president of Roberts Environmental Control Corp., and Jim Gergits, chief engineer for 800 South Wells, in front of a new Cleaver-Brooks boiler that River City’s owners installed, which contributed to their complex earning Energy Star’s multifamily certification. Photo provided by property management to the U.S. EPA
The certified buildings are a varied bunch, and include:
• ECO Modern Flats in Fayetteville, Ark., which reduced its energy usage by 23% annually after a renovation team installed solar water heaters, closed-cell insulation, white roofing, a green screen, low-E windows, efficient lighting, low-flow showerheads and faucets, dual-flush toilets, and Energy Star-certified appliances.
• The 88-unit affordable housing complex Terrific Tenements in New York City, which cut its fuel costs by 50% by installed new boilers and heating controls.
• River City in Chicago completely replaced its common-area lighting, and installed more efficient equipment that included two 350-h.p. firetube Cleaver-Brooks boilers, and a 1.2-million-Btu Teledyne Laars domestic water heater.
Its owners also installed two new 650-ton Carrier chillers that draw water from the Chicago River that is chilled and then passed over coils to create cool dehumidified air that’s circulated throughout the building. Sadowski explains that this system is a closed loop, meaning there’s a constant flow of water that returns to a marina beneath the complex.
He adds that most of Chicago’s newer high rises “run on river water.”
Sadowski says that Goby, an energy consultant, was instrumental in helping River City’s owners devise an energy plan. “That took a lot of data analysis,” says Sadowski.
Related Stories
Office Buildings | Jul 22, 2024
U.S. commercial foreclosures increased 48% in June from last year
The commercial building sector continues to be under financial pressure as foreclosures nationwide increased 48% in June compared to June 2023, according to ATTOM, a real estate data analysis firm.
Codes and Standards | Jul 22, 2024
Tennessee developers can now hire their own building safety inspectors
A new law in Tennessee allows developers to hire their own building inspectors to check for environmental, safety, and construction violations. The law is intended to streamline the building process, particularly in rapidly growing communities.
Codes and Standards | Jul 22, 2024
New FEMA rules include climate change impacts
FEMA’s new rules governing rebuilding after disasters will take into account the impacts of climate change on future flood risk. For decades, the agency has followed a 100-year floodplain standard—an area that has a 1% chance of flooding in a given year.
Construction Costs | Jul 18, 2024
Data center construction costs for 2024
Gordian’s data features more than 100 building models, including computer data centers. These localized models allow architects, engineers, and other preconstruction professionals to quickly and accurately create conceptual estimates for future builds. This table shows a five-year view of costs per square foot for one-story computer data centers.
Sustainability | Jul 18, 2024
Grimshaw launches free online tool to help accelerate decarbonization of buildings
Minoro, an online platform to help accelerate the decarbonization of buildings, was recently launched by architecture firm Grimshaw, in collaboration with more than 20 supporting organizations including World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), RIBA, Architecture 2030, the World Green Building Council (WorldGBC) and several national Green Building Councils from across the globe.
University Buildings | Jul 17, 2024
University of Louisville Student Success Building will be new heart of engineering program
A new Student Success Building will serve as the heart of the newly designed University of Louisville’s J.B. Speed School of Engineering. The 115,000-sf structure will greatly increase lab space and consolidate student services to one location.
Healthcare Facilities | Jul 16, 2024
Watch on-demand: Key Trends in the Healthcare Facilities Market for 2024-2025
Join the Building Design+Construction editorial team for this on-demand webinar on key trends, innovations, and opportunities in the $65 billion U.S. healthcare buildings market. A panel of healthcare design and construction experts present their latest projects, trends, innovations, opportunities, and data/research on key healthcare facilities sub-sectors. A 2024-2025 U.S. healthcare facilities market outlook is also presented.
K-12 Schools | Jul 15, 2024
A Cleveland suburb opens a $31.7 million new middle school and renovated high school
Accommodating 1,283 students in grades 6-12, the Warrensville, Ohio school complex features flexible learning environments and offers programs ranging from culinary arts and firefighting training to e-sports.
MFPRO+ News | Jul 15, 2024
More permits for ADUs than single-family homes issued in San Diego
Popularity of granny flats growing in California
Codes and Standards | Jul 15, 2024
New York City code update changes definition of a major building
Changes affecting how construction projects in New York City are permitted will have significant impacts for contractors. On Dec. 11, the definition of a major building in the city’s code will change from 10 stories to seven, or 75 feet. The change will affect thousands more projects.