300 Boylston St

Where 300 Boylston 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

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

The typical floor has 1,009 ft of exterior wall, and across 12 residential floors the building carries 10,957 ft of it in total, divided among the 275 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.53: 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 22.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 300 Boylston St scores 70 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 73, Interior depth 27, 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 27 out of 100: deepest interior point 69 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1999

Boston records this building as going up in 1999, which puts it in the modern stock.

As a rule, newer systems and better structure, but usually built deep and sealed for office use, and rarely cheap enough to buy at a price that lets a conversion pencil. 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 76% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 338,942 sq ft of converted floor, or $122.0M in total — about $444K for each of the 275 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 80,271 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 275 homes is $121.4M.

What would have to be true

A $603K gap before any grant, which the modeled $10.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: completed value per home 8% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $603K. Closing it from the value side means each of the 275 homes finishing at $444K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 0% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $358 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $407K a home. That is below the assumed value, which is why this building counts as unlocked by the grant — subject to it qualifying under the law's vacant-and-abandoned test, which this data cannot show.

Each of these, moved on its own, would be enough to undo that for 300 Boylston St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 300 Boylston St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

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

Its floor plate is better lit than 25% of them, and shallower than 15% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 36th 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-LOW-DT zone

25th of 25 zoned SKY-LOW-DT — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

25 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY-LOW-DT. 300 Boylston St ranks 25th of them against a median score of 91. 24 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 35 ft from a facade against this building’s 69 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,629 homes. The group’s top scorer is 36-44 Broad St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 69-81 Tremont St

The screened building closest to 300 Boylston St in converted floor area is 69-81 Tremont St: 335,026 sq ft over 14 stories, against 338,942 sq ft over 13 here.

300 Boylston St scores 70 to its 64, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 73 out of 100 here, 65 there (72% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they sit in the same place: each pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 3,300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 300 Boylston 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 300 Boylston St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 770 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 2 Park Plz
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 39 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 770 ft away
• 252-272 Tremont St
  13 stories · 100% daylit · 141 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 1,450 ft away
• 48-52 Boylston St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · already housing
  about 1,620 ft away
• 150 Tremont St
  22 stories · 89% daylit · already a condominium building
  about 2,040 ft away