1327 Chestnut St

Where 1327 Chestnut 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

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

The typical floor has 748 ft of exterior wall, and across 17 residential floors the building carries 12,724 ft of it in total, divided among the 386 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.76: 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 22.7 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1327 Chestnut St scores 39 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 46, Interior depth 11, Scale 100, Finance 3 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 3 out of 100: remaining gap is 58% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1916

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1916, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 63% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 572,542 sq ft of converted floor, or $206.1M in total — about $534K for each of the 386 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 210,501 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 386 homes is $75.9M.

What would have to be true

A $130.2M gap before any grant, $120.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 61% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $130.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 386 homes finishing at $534K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 171% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $133 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $508K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $120.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1327 Chestnut St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1327 Chestnut St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1327 Chestnut St ranks 77th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 21% of them, and shallower than 26% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 36th 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

45th of 65 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

65 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1327 Chestnut St ranks 45th 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 75 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: 1701 Market St

The screened building closest to 1327 Chestnut St in converted floor area is 1701 Market St: 585,158 sq ft over 18 stories, against 572,542 sq ft over 18 here.

1327 Chestnut St scores 39 to its 51, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 11 out of 100 here, 39 there (deepest interior point 64 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 1,800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1327 Chestnut 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 1327 Chestnut St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 130 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1 S Broad St
  26 stories · 86% daylit · 509 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 130 ft away
• 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 370 ft away
• 100 S Broad St
  22 stories · 97% daylit · 610 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 430 ft away