100 S Independence Mall W

Where 100 S Independence Mall W is

Its block in Center City Philadelphia, drawn from Philadelphia'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 908 ft of exterior wall, and across 8 residential floors the building carries 7,260 ft of it in total, divided among the 229 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.73: 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 28.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 100 S Independence Mall W scores 30 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 33, Interior depth 0, Scale 100, Finance 0 — each out of 100, then weighted.

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 82 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1965

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1965, which puts it in the post-war stock.

As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. 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 56% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 381,146 sq ft of converted floor, or $137.2M in total — about $599K for each of the 229 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 166,217 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 $197K a home, which for 229 homes is $45.0M.

What would have to be true

A $92.2M gap before any grant, $82.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 65% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $92.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 229 homes finishing at $599K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 205% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $118 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $556K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $82.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 100 S Independence Mall W, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 100 S Independence Mall W re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

100 S Independence Mall W ranks 94th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 10% of them, and shallower than 17% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 50th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 103 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the CMX5 zone

60th of 65 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

65 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 100 S Independence Mall W ranks 60th of them against a median score of 67. 28 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 58 ft from a facade against this building’s 82 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 30,650 homes. The group’s top scorer is 112 N Broad St, at 93.

Its nearest match in size: 917 Chestnut St

The screened building closest to 100 S Independence Mall W in converted floor area is 917 Chestnut St: 305,904 sq ft over 9 stories, against 381,146 sq ft over 9 here.

917 Chestnut St scores 64 and 100 S Independence Mall W only 30, 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 82 ft from a facade, past the 80 ft threshold beyond which conversion requires carving a light well. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,500 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 100 S Independence Mall W $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 100 S Independence Mall W

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 290 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 615 Chestnut St
  17 stories · 59% daylit · 466 estimated homes · scores 36/100 (Marginal)
  about 290 ft away
• 105 S 7th St
  4 stories · 63% daylit · 66 estimated homes · scores 33/100 (Marginal)
  about 580 ft away
• 700 Chestnut St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 36 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 580 ft away
• 701 Market St
  5 stories · 40% daylit · 247 estimated homes · scores 15/100 (Unlikely)
  about 680 ft away