Although no one building type dominates the commercial buildings sector, office buildings are the most common and account for more than 800,000 buildings or 17 percent of total commercial buildings. Offices comprised more than 12 billion square feet of floorspace, 17 percent of total commercial floorspace, the most of any building type.
Types of Office Buildings
The 2003 CBECS Detailed Tables present data for office buildings along with other principal building activities (see Detailed Tables B13 and B14, for example). Since office buildings comprise a wide range of office-related activities, survey respondents were presented with a follow-up list of specific office types to choose from. Although we have not presented the office sub-category information in the detailed tables we make information about the sub-categories available in the 2003 Public Use Micro-Data files. Several of the sub-category choices presented to respondents were reported too few times to produce statistically reliable estimates and were aggregated with the “other type of office” category. We provide information in the micro-data files for the following office sub-categories (with examples of each):
- Administrative or professional office
- University administration building
- Insurance company headquarters building
- Local insurance agency
- Social services office
- Attorney’s office
- Real estate sales office
- Government office
- State agency headquarters office
- Regional Federal agency service center
- City hall
- Ranger station
- Metropolitan sewage district office
- Bank or other financial office
- Bank
- Savings and loan
- Credit union
- Check cashing
- Mixed-use office
- Bank offices and insurance office
- Training center and administrative office
- Medical office without medical diagnostic equipment
- Health services administrative center
- Mental health services
- Other type of office
- Contractor's office
- Call center
The following table presents summary statistics for these office sub-categories. Administrative or professional office buildings dominate the entire office building category and account for more than half of office buildings and floorspace in office buildings (Figure 1).
Table 1. Totals and means of of floorspace, number of workers, and hours of operation for office buildings, 2003
| Buildings (thousand) |
Total Floorspace (million sq. ft.) |
Total Workers (thousand) |
Mean Square Feet per Building (thousand) | Mean Square Feet per Worker | Mean Hours per Week | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Buildings | 4,859 | 71,658 | * | 14.7 | * | * |
| All Non-Mall Buildings | 4,645 | 64,783 | 72,807 | 13.9 | 890 | 61 |
| All Office Buildings | 824 | 12,208 | 28,154 | 14.8 | 434 | 55 |
| Type of Office Building | ||||||
| —Administrative/ Professional |
442 | 6,628 | 15,316 | 15.0 | 433 | 56 |
| —Bank/Financial | 104 | 1,101 | 2,323 | 10.6 | 474 | 50 |
| —Government | 84 | 1,549 | 4,042 | 18.4 | 383 | 50 |
| —Medical (Non-Diagnostic) | 37 | 223 | 449 | 6.0 | 497 | 54 |
| —Mixed Use | 84 | 2,297 | 5,054 | 27.5 | 454 | 61 |
| —Other Office | 73 | 410 | 970 | 5.6 | 422 | 53 |
| * Number of workers and hours of operation were not collected for mall buildings. Source: Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. |
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Figure 1. Percentage of Office Buildings by Type of Office, 2003
Source: Energy Information Administration. 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey.
Two of the office sub-categories, administrative/professional and government, can be reported for major building characteristics categories (Table 2 and Table 3). All other office sub-categories have been aggregated into the "Other" category. At the end of this section are links to tables with a full set of rowstubs.
Table 2. Types of Office Building, Number of Buildings, 2003
| Total Buildings (thousand) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Buildings* | Office Buildings | ||||
| All Office | Administrative/ Professional |
Government | Other | ||
| All Buildings | 4,645 | 824 | 442 | 84 | 298 |
| Building Floorspace (square feet) |
|||||
| —Small (1,001 to 5,000) | 2,552 | 503 | 273 | Q | 189 |
| —Medium (5,001 to 50,000) | 1,868 | 285 | 147 | 38 | 100 |
| —Large (Over 50,000) | 225 | 35 | 21 | 5 | 9 |
| Year Constructed | |||||
| —Before 1960 | 1,419 | 230 | 158 | 21 | 51 |
| —1960 to 1989 | 2,016 | 414 | 204 | 47 | 163 |
| —1990 to 2003 | 1,210 | 180 | 80 | 17 | 83 |
| Census Region and Division | |||||
| —Northeast | 726 | 155 | 87 | 19 | 49 |
| ——New England | 233 | 47 | 26 | Q | Q |
| ——Middle Atlantic | 493 | 108 | 61 | 11 | 36 |
| —Midwest | 1,266 | 231 | 120 | 28 | 83 |
| ——East North Central | 696 | 134 | 79 | 14 | 41 |
| ——West North Central | 571 | 97 | 41 | Q | 42 |
| —South | 1,775 | 250 | 131 | 25 | 94 |
| ——South Atlantic | 874 | 125 | 72 | 6 | 47 |
| ——East South Central | 348 | 41 | 26 | Q | Q |
| ——West South Central | 553 | 84 | 33 | Q | 38 |
| —West | 878 | 187 | 105 | 11 | 72 |
| ——Mountain | 299 | 62 | 28 | Q | 28 |
| ——Pacific | 580 | 125 | 77 | Q | 43 |
| * Data are for non-mall buildings. Q=Data withheld because the Relative Standard Error (RSE) was greater than 50 percent, or fewer than 20 buildings were sampled. Source: Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. |
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Table 3. Types of Office Building, Floorspace, 2003
| Total Floorspace (million square feet) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Buildings* | Office Buildings | ||||
| All Office | Administrative/ Professional |
Government | Other | ||
| All Buildings | 64,783 | 12,208 | 6,628 | 1,549 | 4,031 |
| Building Floorspace (square feet) |
|||||
| —Small (1,001 to 5,000) | 6,789 | 1,382 | 730 | Q | 546 |
| —Medium (5,001 to 50,000) | 26,789 | 4,331 | 2,301 | 560 | 1,470 |
| —Large (Over 50,000) | 31,206 | 6,495 | 3,597 | 883 | 2,015 |
| Year Constructed | |||||
| —Before 1960 | 17,685 | 2,852 | 1,454 | 433 | 965 |
| —1960 to 1989 | 29,205 | 6,792 | 3,773 | 724 | 2,295 |
| —1990 to 2003 | 17,893 | 2,563 | 1,401 | 392 | 770 |
| Census Region and Division | |||||
| —Northeast | 12,905 | 3,012 | 1,560 | 316 | 1,136 |
| ——New England | 2,964 | 578 | 332 | Q | Q |
| ——Middle Atlantic | 9,941 | 2,434 | 1,228 | 217 | 988 |
| —Midwest | 17,080 | 2,989 | 1,584 | 486 | 919 |
| ——East North Central | 11,595 | 2,190 | 1,242 | 374 | 575 |
| ——West North Central | 5,485 | 799 | 342 | Q | 345 |
| —South | 23,489 | 3,782 | 2,011 | 564 | 1,206 |
| ——South Atlantic | 12,258 | 1,958 | 1,007 | Q | 633 |
| ——East South Central | 3,393 | 481 | 253 | Q | Q |
| ——West South Central | 7,837 | 1,343 | 752 | Q | 462 |
| —West | 11,310 | 2,425 | 1,473 | 183 | 769 |
| ——Mountain | 3,675 | 629 | 346 | Q | 208 |
| ——Pacific | 7,635 | 1,796 | 1,127 | Q | 561 |
| * Data are for non-mall buildings. Q=Data withheld because the Relative Standard Error (RSE) was greater than 50 percent, or fewer than 20 buildings were sampled. Source: Energy Information Administration, 2003 Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey. |
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Office Buildings
Types of Office Buildings
Energy Consumption
End-Use Equipment
Detailed office tables |
Excel |
PDF |
|---|---|---|
| Table 2. Office Building Sub-Categories, Number of Buildings, 2003 |  |
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| Table 3. Office Building Sub-Categories, Floorspace, 2003 | |
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| Note: Excel version includes tab for relative standard errors (RSEs). | ||
| See "What is an RSE?" for additional information. |
Return to: CBECS Home Page
Specific questions may be directed to:
Alan Swenson
Alan Swenson
Phone: (202) 586-1129
FAX: (202) 586-9753
Date released: September, 2010