43-65 State St

Where 43-65 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

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 675 ft of exterior wall, and across 44 residential floors the building carries 31,701 ft of it in total, divided among the 940 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.71: 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 21.4 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 64 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 89 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 43-65 State St scores 61 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 54, Interior depth 39, Scale 100, Finance 83 — 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 39 out of 100: deepest interior point 64 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1983

Boston records this building as going up in 1983, 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 67% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,318,790 sq ft of converted floor, or $474.8M in total — about $505K for each of the 940 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 436,793 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 940 homes is $415.0M.

What would have to be true

A $59.7M gap before any grant, $49.7M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 11% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $59.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 940 homes finishing at $505K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 14% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $315 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $494K a home. That is still above the $442K assumed, leaving $49.7M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 43-65 State St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 43-65 State St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

43-65 State St ranks 86th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 9% of them, and shallower than 23% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 7th 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

45th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 43-65 State St ranks 45th 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 64 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 Federal St

The screened building closest to 43-65 State St in converted floor area is 1 Federal St: 1,272,879 sq ft over 43 stories, against 1,318,790 sq ft over 45 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 61 here, 62 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 900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 43-65 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 43-65 State St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 270 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 15-19 Broad St
  33 stories · 68% daylit · 706 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 270 ft away
• 60 State St
  42 stories · 73% daylit · 720 estimated homes · scores 67/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 280 ft away
• 74-84 State St
  10 stories · 98% daylit · 116 estimated homes · scores 97/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 290 ft away
• 43-45 Devonshire St
  13 stories · 96% daylit · 111 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 370 ft away