1313 Walnut St

Where 1313 Walnut St 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

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

The typical floor has 615 ft of exterior wall, and across 17 residential floors the building carries 10,456 ft of it in total, divided among the 271 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.50: 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 15.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1313 Walnut St scores 92 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 100, Finance 48 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 48 out of 100: remaining gap is 31% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1925

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1925, which puts it in the interwar stock.

As a rule, steel or concrete frames with punched windows and plates still narrow enough for daylight to reach the middle, often with high ceilings. Among the most convertible stock there is, and the reason so many early conversions were of buildings this age. 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 100% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 254,883 sq ft of converted floor, or $91.8M in total — about $339K for each of the 271 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the circulation and service area that earns nothing directly. Against it the model sets a completed value of $197K a home, which for 271 homes is $53.3M.

What would have to be true

A $38.5M gap before any grant, $28.5M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 35% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $38.5M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 271 homes finishing at $339K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 72% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $209 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $302K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $28.5M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1313 Walnut St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1313 Walnut St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1313 Walnut St ranks 4th of the 100 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 100% of them, and shallower than 92% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 42nd largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 100 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within the CMX5 zone

4th of 63 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

63 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1313 Walnut St ranks 4th of them against a median score of 67. 28 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 57 ft from a facade against this building’s 30 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 30,185 homes. The group’s top scorer is 112 N Broad St, at 93.

Its nearest match in size: 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd

The screened building closest to 1313 Walnut St in converted floor area is 1880 John F Kennedy Blvd: 259,202 sq ft over 20 stories, against 254,883 sq ft over 18 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 92 here, 92 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 2,800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1313 Walnut 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 1313 Walnut St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 280 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1326 Chestnut St
  8 stories · 100% daylit · 76 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 280 ft away
• 115 S Broad St
  21 stories · 96% daylit · 180 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away
• 213 S Broad St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 74 estimated homes · scores 86/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 430 ft away
• 100 S Broad St
  22 stories · 97% daylit · 610 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 550 ft away