600 Atlantic Ave

Where 600 Atlantic Ave is

Its block in Downtown Boston, drawn from Boston's own building outlines and street centerlines.

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 627 ft of exterior wall, and across 49 residential floors the building carries 36,996 ft of it in total, divided among the 1,009 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.60: 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 20.6 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 48 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 125 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 600 Atlantic Ave scores 83 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 72, Interior depth 80, 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 daylight efficiency, at 72 out of 100: 76% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%.

Built in 1976

Boston records this building as going up in 1976, 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 76% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,242,818 sq ft of converted floor, or $447.4M in total — about $443K for each of the 1,009 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 296,262 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 1,009 homes is $445.5M.

What would have to be true

A $1.9M gap before any grant, which the modeled $10.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: completed value per home 2% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $1.9M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 1,009 homes finishing at $443K 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 $434K 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 600 Atlantic Ave:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 600 Atlantic Ave re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

600 Atlantic Ave ranks 63rd of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 24% of them, and shallower than 54% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 4th 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.

Its nearest match in size: 150 Oliver St

The screened building closest to 600 Atlantic Ave in converted floor area is 150 Oliver St: 1,154,358 sq ft over 50 stories, against 1,242,818 sq ft over 50 here.

600 Atlantic Ave scores 83 to its 70, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 80 out of 100 here, 14 there (deepest interior point 74 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 150 Oliver St pencils without a subsidy, while 600 Atlantic Ave pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 1,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 600 Atlantic Ave $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 600 Atlantic Ave

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 350 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 518-540 Atlantic Ave
  35 stories · 66% daylit · 1,214 estimated homes · scores 52/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 350 ft away
• 245 Summer St
  19 stories · 55% daylit · 586 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 460 ft away
• 99 High St
  34 stories · 70% daylit · 593 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 640 ft away
• 172-180 Federal St
  7 stories · 91% daylit · 63 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 690 ft away