1 Avenue De Lafayette

Where 1 Avenue De Lafayette 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 2,042 ft of exterior wall, and across 21 residential floors the building carries 23,750 ft of it in total, divided among the 721 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.45: a squarish plan, with enough perimeter for a conventional double-loaded corridor. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 34.3 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 107 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 182 ft. The score follows the typical floor, so a podium that could not hold a bedroom does not by itself sink a slim tower above it — but it is there, and it is part of what would have to be drawn around.

Why 1 Avenue De Lafayette scores 35 out of 100

The weighted components add to 42, but the score is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 107 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 107 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1984

Boston records this building as going up in 1984, which puts it in the late-modern stock.

As a rule, typically the hardest to convert: the deepest plates of any era, large central cores, and floor-to-floor heights tight enough that running residential drainage under a ceiling can be the thing that ends a project. 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 59% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,154,326 sq ft of converted floor, or $415.6M in total — about $576K for each of the 721 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 477,550 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 721 homes is $318.3M.

What would have to be true

A $97.2M gap before any grant, $87.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 21% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $97.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 721 homes finishing at $576K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 31% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $276 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $562K a home. That is still above the $442K assumed, leaving $87.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1 Avenue De Lafayette, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1 Avenue De Lafayette re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

1 Avenue De Lafayette ranks 90th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 5% of them, and shallower than 2% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 13th 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 SKY zone

47th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 1 Avenue De Lafayette ranks 47th of them against a median score of 88. 40 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 51 ft from a facade against this building’s 107 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 19,019 homes. The group’s top scorer is 147 Milk St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 245 Summer St

The screened building closest to 1 Avenue De Lafayette in converted floor area is 245 Summer St: 991,576 sq ft over 19 stories, against 1,154,326 sq ft over 22 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 35 here, 35 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 2,100 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1 Avenue De Lafayette $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 Avenue De Lafayette

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 320 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 21-53 Summer St
  11 stories · 47% daylit · 401 estimated homes · scores 27/100 (Unlikely)
  about 320 ft away
• 22-40 Chauncy St
  11 stories · 86% daylit · 195 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 340 ft away
• 99 Chauncy St
  11 stories · 97% daylit · 178 estimated homes · scores 98/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 350 ft away
• 60-70 Temple Pl
  7 stories · 95% daylit · 50 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 390 ft away