Boston Buildings Inventory

The Boston Archive

Dataset

Boston Buildings Inventory

This dataset pulls from many different data sources to identify individual building characteristics of all buildings in Boston. It also identifies high-potential retrofit options to reduce carbon emissions in multifamily buildings, using the best available data and assumptions from building…

Dataset

Publisher: Environment Department
Spatial coverage: all
Fields: 107
Keywords: building inventory, carbon emissions, environment, retrofit, sustainability
Publisher's page: https://data.boston.gov/dataset/boston-buildings-inventory

Artifacts

“Preserved” means the archive holds the bytes and their digest. “Referenced” means it holds the record of them and nothing more. The archive does not claim a holding it cannot prove.

Format	Preservation	Size	Digest	Source
CSV	preserved	47663162	`2624de61b83bf2b7454039785b77f38bfdb94a5ff65d3670c3ddbe1cf9773250`	source
CSV	preserved	17176	`56144c17c2875ef3d5c0d873bbe3f564959fe82878f48df6bccdd65205a657c8`	source
CSV	preserved	15969	`657f83cb4b750e53d46336591db587005710f37c08817b1ad095dbf6400d3201`	source
CSV	referenced	2868	`—`	source
PDF	referenced	4952544	`—`	source
XLSX	referenced	90559	`—`	source

Column dictionary

The publisher's own dictionary, preserved verbatim. The archive does not reword a schema into its own vocabulary — how the publisher named a column is evidence about the publisher.

Column	Type	Description
`id`	text
`pid_long`	text
`cm_id`	text
`building_typology`	text
`building_subtypology`	text
`use_class`	text
`sqft_class`	text
`year_built_class`	text
`st_num`	text
`st_name`	text
`st_name_suf`	text
`unit_num`	text
`zipcode`	text
`yr_built`	text
`land_sf`	text
`gross_area`	text
`living_area`	text
`sqft`	text
`num_floors`	text
`num_bldgs`	text
`units_res`	text
`units_com`	text
`units_mixed`	text
`ptype`	text
`ptype_list`	text
`lu`	text
`lu_list`	text
`assessor_category`	text
`assessor_description`	text
`own_occ`	text
`own_occ_list`	text
`owner_list`	text
`structure_class`	text
`structure_class_list`	text
`bldg_styl`	text
`bldg_styl_list`	text
`r_roof_typ`	text
`ext_fin`	text
`ext_fin_list`	text
`ext_cond_list`	text
`insulation_type`	text
`foundation_type`	text
`heat_typ`	text
`heat_typ_list`	text
`heating_system_fuel`	text
`ac`	text
`ac_list`	text
`ac_system_type`	text

48 of 107 columns are shown here. The complete dictionary, exactly as the publisher words it, is served as its own holding at /asset/16579b1c5d53d51f4964b7db45a2128c/boston-buildings-inventory-columns.json — 6667 bytes, SHA-256 16579b1c5d53d51f…, under Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL) 1.0.

Questions this record answers

Each answer is composed only from fields this record carries, and names the attestation for what it says. A question the record cannot answer from its own attested content is not asked here. Where a boundary is described as official it was promulgated by an authority with the power to draw it and is not amended by anything on the vernacular layer; where it is described as vernacular it is held by attestation alone and amends no official boundary.

Who publishes Boston Buildings Inventory, and under what license?

Environment Department publishes it. The archive accessioned it under Open Data Commons Public Domain Dedication and Licence (PDDL) 1.0 (public domain), and holds the publisher's own column dictionary verbatim rather than reworded into the archive's vocabulary — how a publisher names a column is evidence about the publisher.