60 State St

Where 60 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 614 ft of exterior wall, and across 41 residential floors the building carries 24,389 ft of it in total, divided among the 720 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.79: 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 17.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 60 State St scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 66, Interior depth 30, Scale 100, Finance 97 — 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 30 out of 100: deepest interior point 68 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1977

Boston records this building as going up in 1977, 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 73% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 925,422 sq ft of converted floor, or $333.2M in total — about $463K for each of the 720 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 249,669 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 720 homes is $317.9M.

What would have to be true

A $15.3M gap before any grant, $5.3M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 2% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $15.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 720 homes finishing at $463K rather than the $442K the model assumes — 5% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $344 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $449K a home. That is still above the $442K assumed, leaving $5.3M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 60 State St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 60 State St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

60 State St ranks 82nd of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 17% of them, and shallower than 16% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 14th 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

43rd of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 60 State St ranks 43rd 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 68 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: 225 Franklin St

The screened building closest to 60 State St in converted floor area is 225 Franklin St: 906,245 sq ft over 40 stories, against 925,422 sq ft over 42 here.

60 State St scores 67 to its 80, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 30 out of 100 here, 76 there (deepest interior point 50 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 225 Franklin St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant, while 60 State St falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 60 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 60 State 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.

• 74-84 State St
  10 stories · 98% daylit · 116 estimated homes · scores 97/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 28 State St
  42 stories · 83% daylit · 621 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 270 ft away
• 43-65 State St
  45 stories · 67% daylit · 940 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 280 ft away
• 15-19 Broad St
  33 stories · 68% daylit · 706 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 410 ft away