1525 Locust St

Where 1525 Locust 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

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

The typical floor has 355 ft of exterior wall, and across 17 residential floors the building carries 6,036 ft of it in total, divided among the 121 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.67: 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 7.1 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1525 Locust St scores 91 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 81, Finance 59 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 59 out of 100: remaining gap is 25% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1983

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1983, 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 100% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 114,300 sq ft of converted floor, or $41.1M in total — about $340K for each of the 121 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 121 homes is $23.8M.

What would have to be true

A $17.3M gap before any grant, $10.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 24% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $17.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 121 homes finishing at $340K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 73% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $208 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.3M moves that threshold to $280K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $10.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1525 Locust St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1525 Locust St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1525 Locust St ranks 12th 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 87% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 66th 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

12th of 63 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

63 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1525 Locust St ranks 12th 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 34 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: 1742 Market St

The screened building closest to 1525 Locust St in converted floor area is 1742 Market St: 123,188 sq ft over 14 stories, against 114,300 sq ft over 18 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 91 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 1,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1525 Locust St $7.3M, 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 1525 Locust St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 260 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1524 Walnut St
  21 stories · 86% daylit · 249 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 1500 Walnut St
  22 stories · 91% daylit · 537 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away
• 1601 Walnut St
  15 stories · 95% daylit · 140 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 470 ft away
• 1420 Walnut St
  15 stories · 95% daylit · 210 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 540 ft away