1-3 Center Plz

Where 1-3 Center Plz is

Its block in Downtown Boston, drawn from Boston's own building outlines and street centerlines.

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

33 ft of exterior wall for each home the screen estimates — enough for two- and three-bedroom homes across the plan.

The typical floor has 1,974 ft of exterior wall, and across 10 residential floors the building carries 18,037 ft of it in total, divided among the 549 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is highly articulated at 0.24: a long, notched or wing-shaped outline with far more facade than its area needs — wasteful as an office envelope, and close to ideal for apartments. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 54.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1-3 Center Plz scores 90 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 87, Interior depth 83, Scale 100, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 83 out of 100: deepest interior point 47 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1966

Boston records this building as going up in 1966, which puts it in the post-war stock.

As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. That is the era’s general tendency rather than a finding about this building — the model reads an outline and a height, and can see nothing inside — but it is the first thing an architect would want to know, and it colours how much confidence the 84% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 616,462 sq ft of converted floor, or $221.9M in total — about $404K for each of the 549 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 101,531 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, re-plumbed and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $442K a home, which for 549 homes is $242.4M.

What would have to be true

This one already clears the bar. The question is how much room it has before it stops.

At $442K a home, completed value covers the $221.9M of work with $20.5M to spare. Value per home would have to fall to $404K — 8% below the assumption — before the conversion stopped penciling, or all-in cost would have to rise from $360 to $393 per square foot. Neither is a wide margin in a market that moves, but this building does not need a grant to work.

Each of these, moved on its own, would be enough to undo that for 1-3 Center Plz:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1-3 Center Plz re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

1-3 Center Plz ranks 36th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 41% of them, and shallower than 57% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 25th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 96 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the PEMBERTON SQUARE PROTECTION AREA zone

3rd of 7 zoned PEMBERTON SQUARE PROTECTION AREA — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

7 of the screened buildings are zoned PEMBERTON SQUARE PROTECTION AREA. 1-3 Center Plz ranks 3rd of them against a median score of 79. 5 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 60 ft from a facade against this building’s 47 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,645 homes. The group’s top scorer is 6-6B Beacon St, at 94.

Its nearest match in size: 200 State St

The screened building closest to 1-3 Center Plz in converted floor area is 200 State St: 642,469 sq ft over 18 stories, against 616,462 sq ft over 11 here.

1-3 Center Plz scores 90 to its 75, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 83 out of 100 here, 37 there (deepest interior point 65 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each pencils without a subsidy. The two stand about 1,900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1-3 Center Plz $10.0M, on the assumption it qualifies. Whether it does, no published dataset can say.

That figure assumes the building meets the Act’s vacant-and-abandoned test, which turns on code-enforcement and receivership records no city publishes.

It does not sit in a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, so it would not draw that Section 201 priority.

Other buildings screened near 1-3 Center Plz

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 440 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 25-55 Court St
  5 stories · 100% daylit · 46 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 440 ft away
• 100 City Hall Plz
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 58 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 450 ft away
• 1 Beacon St
  42 stories · 65% daylit · 881 estimated homes · scores 55/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 490 ft away
• 30-40 Court St
  7 stories · 94% daylit · 290 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 500 ft away