1 Federal St

Where 1 Federal St 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 638 ft of exterior wall, and across 42 residential floors the building carries 30,475 ft of it in total, divided among the 916 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.75: close to a square or a circle, the most efficient envelope an office can have and the least generous one for apartments: little perimeter to divide among homes. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 21.8 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 65 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 73 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 Federal St scores 62 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 55, Interior depth 36, Scale 100, Finance 84 — 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 36 out of 100: deepest interior point 65 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1976

Boston records this building as going up in 1976, 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 68% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,272,879 sq ft of converted floor, or $458.2M in total — about $500K for each of the 916 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 413,264 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 916 homes is $404.4M.

What would have to be true

A $53.8M gap before any grant, $43.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 10% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $53.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 916 homes finishing at $500K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 13% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $318 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $489K a home. That is still above the $442K assumed, leaving $43.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

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

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1 Federal St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

1 Federal St ranks 85th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 11% of them, and shallower than 19% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 8th 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

44th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 1 Federal St ranks 44th 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 65 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: 1 Beacon St

The screened building closest to 1 Federal St in converted floor area is 1 Beacon St: 1,262,700 sq ft over 42 stories, against 1,272,879 sq ft over 43 here.

1 Federal St scores 62 to its 55, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 36 out of 100 here, 20 there (deepest interior point 72 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1 Federal St $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 Federal St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 181-185 Devonshire St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 68 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 125-135 Congress St
  8 stories · 98% daylit · 49 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 170 ft away
• 157-175 Devonshire St
  11 stories · 97% daylit · 162 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 190 ft away
• 42-60 Federal St
  10 stories · 92% daylit · 81 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 200 ft away