28 State St

Where 28 State 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

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

The typical floor has 546 ft of exterior wall, and across 41 residential floors the building carries 22,385 ft of it in total, divided among the 621 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.72: 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 15.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 28 State St scores 88 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 86, Interior depth 78, 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 78 out of 100: deepest interior point 49 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1968

Boston records this building as going up in 1968, 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 83% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 703,081 sq ft of converted floor, or $253.1M in total — about $408K for each of the 621 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 120,522 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 621 homes is $274.2M.

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 $253.1M of work with $21.1M to spare. Value per home would have to fall to $408K — 8% below the assumption — before the conversion stopped penciling, or all-in cost would have to rise from $360 to $390 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 28 State St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 28 State St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

28 State St ranks 52nd of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 38% of them, and shallower than 51% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 18th 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

26th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 28 State St ranks 26th 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 49 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: 60 State St

The screened building closest to 28 State St in converted floor area is 60 State St: 925,422 sq ft over 42 stories, against 703,081 sq ft over 42 here.

28 State St scores 88 to its 67, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 78 out of 100 here, 30 there (deepest interior point 68 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 60 State St falls short even with the modeled grant, while 28 State St pencils without a subsidy. The two stand about 300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 28 State 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 28 State St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 150 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1-11 Court St
  16 stories · 85% daylit · 233 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 150 ft away
• 60 State St
  42 stories · 73% daylit · 720 estimated homes · scores 67/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 270 ft away
• 43-45 Devonshire St
  13 stories · 96% daylit · 111 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away
• 100 City Hall Plz
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 58 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 360 ft away