588-622 Washington St

Where 588-622 Washington 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

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

The typical floor has 909 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 6,365 ft of it in total, divided among the 199 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.77: 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 28.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 588-622 Washington St scores 35 out of 100

The weighted components add to 36, but the score is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 101 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well.

Most of what it earns comes from scale, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 0 out of 100: deepest interior point 101 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1899

Boston records this building as going up in 1899, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 53% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 353,029 sq ft of converted floor, or $127.1M in total — about $639K for each of the 199 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 165,768 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 199 homes is $87.9M.

What would have to be true

A $39.2M gap before any grant, $29.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 25% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $39.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 199 homes finishing at $639K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 45% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $249 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $588K a home. That is still above the $442K assumed, leaving $29.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 588-622 Washington St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 588-622 Washington St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

588-622 Washington St ranks 90th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 2% of them, and shallower than 3% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 44th 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

47th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 588-622 Washington St ranks 47th 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 101 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: 300 Boylston St

The screened building closest to 588-622 Washington St in converted floor area is 300 Boylston St: 338,942 sq ft over 13 stories, against 353,029 sq ft over 8 here.

300 Boylston St scores 70 and 588-622 Washington St only 35, and the difference is a hard fail rather than a matter of degree: the lower one is capped at 35 because its deepest interior point is 101 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well. On the money they part ways: 300 Boylston St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 588-622 Washington St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 2,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 588-622 Washington 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 588-622 Washington St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 250 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 99 Chauncy St
  11 stories · 97% daylit · 178 estimated homes · scores 98/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 250 ft away
• 62-74 Essex St
  8 stories · 96% daylit · 70 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 330 ft away
• 11 Avenue De Lafayette
  6 stories · 99% daylit · 61 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 390 ft away
• 1 Avenue De Lafayette
  22 stories · 59% daylit · 721 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 520 ft away