150 Oliver St

Where 150 Oliver 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

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

The typical floor has 901 ft of exterior wall, and across 49 residential floors the building carries 33,677 ft of it in total, divided among the 986 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.48: 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 20.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 150 Oliver St scores 70 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 80, Interior depth 14, 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 14 out of 100: deepest interior point 74 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1985

Boston records this building as going up in 1985, 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 80% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,154,358 sq ft of converted floor, or $415.6M in total — about $421K for each of the 986 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 229,904 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 986 homes is $435.3M.

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 $415.6M of work with $19.8M to spare. Value per home would have to fall to $421K — 5% below the assumption — before the conversion stopped penciling, or all-in cost would have to rise from $360 to $377 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 150 Oliver St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 150 Oliver St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

150 Oliver St ranks 77th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 31% of them, and shallower than 9% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 5th 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

41st of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 150 Oliver St ranks 41st 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 74 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: 600 Atlantic Ave

The screened building closest to 150 Oliver St in converted floor area is 600 Atlantic Ave: 1,242,818 sq ft over 50 stories, against 1,154,358 sq ft over 50 here.

150 Oliver St scores 70 to its 83, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 14 out of 100 here, 80 there (deepest interior point 48 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 600 Atlantic Ave pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 150 Oliver St pencils without a subsidy. The two stand about 1,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 150 Oliver 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 150 Oliver 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.

• 90 Oliver St
  45 stories · 76% daylit · 743 estimated homes · scores 70/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 390-400R Atlantic Ave
  7 stories · 79% daylit · 85 estimated homes · scores 71/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 490 ft away
• 225 Franklin St
  40 stories · 75% daylit · 722 estimated homes · scores 80/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 500 ft away
• 55-61 Batterymarch St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 38 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 590 ft away