90 Oliver St

Where 90 Oliver 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

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

The typical floor has 508 ft of exterior wall, and across 44 residential floors the building carries 25,794 ft of it in total, divided among the 743 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.88: 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 16.9 homes per floor. Its floors are not alike, though: the typical floor's deepest interior point is 68 ft from a facade, while its worst floor reaches 95 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 90 Oliver St scores 70 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 72, Interior depth 31, 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 31 out of 100: deepest interior point 68 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1990

Boston records this building as going up in 1990, 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 915,461 sq ft of converted floor, or $329.6M in total — about $444K for each of the 743 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 218,882 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 743 homes is $328.0M.

What would have to be true

A $1.5M gap before any grant, which the modeled $10.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 3% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $1.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 743 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 $430K 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 90 Oliver St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 90 Oliver St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown Boston

90 Oliver St ranks 76th of the 96 buildings screened here, against a median score of 89.

Its floor plate is better lit than 23% of them, and shallower than 17% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 11th 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

40th of 52 zoned SKY — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

52 of the screened buildings are zoned SKY. 90 Oliver St ranks 40th 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: 60 State St

The screened building closest to 90 Oliver St in converted floor area is 60 State St: 925,422 sq ft over 42 stories, against 915,461 sq ft over 45 here.

90 Oliver St scores 70 to its 67, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 72 out of 100 here, 66 there (73% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they part ways: 60 State St falls short even with the modeled grant, while 90 Oliver St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 1,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 90 Oliver 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 90 Oliver 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.

• 150 Oliver St
  50 stories · 80% daylit · 986 estimated homes · scores 70/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 160 ft away
• 55-61 Batterymarch St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 38 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 470 ft away
• 88 Broad St
  9 stories · 96% daylit · 65 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 480 ft away
• 225 Franklin St
  40 stories · 75% daylit · 722 estimated homes · scores 80/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 490 ft away