1601 John F Kennedy Blvd

Where 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd 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

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

The typical floor has 1,059 ft of exterior wall, and across 27 residential floors the building carries 28,603 ft of it in total, divided among the 912 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.52: 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 33.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd scores 55 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 56, Interior depth 59, 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 1928

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1928, 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 68% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 1,259,786 sq ft of converted floor, or $453.5M in total — about $497K for each of the 912 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 404,528 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 912 homes is $179.4M.

What would have to be true

A $274.1M gap before any grant, $264.1M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 60% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $274.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 912 homes finishing at $497K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 153% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $142 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $486K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $264.1M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

1601 John F Kennedy Blvd ranks 62nd of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 33% of them, and shallower than 50% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 10th 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

37th of 65 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

65 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd ranks 37th 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 57 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: 1101 Market St

The screened building closest to 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd in converted floor area is 1101 Market St: 1,192,353 sq ft over 32 stories, against 1,259,786 sq ft over 28 here.

1601 John F Kennedy Blvd scores 55 to its 50, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 59 out of 100 here, 45 there (deepest interior point 62 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 2,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd $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 1601 John F Kennedy Blvd

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 200 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1622 Arch St
  27 stories · 67% daylit · 506 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 200 ft away
• 1600 John F Kennedy Blvd
  20 stories · 75% daylit · 414 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 220 ft away
• 1628 John F Kennedy Blvd
  23 stories · 90% daylit · 246 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 240 ft away
• 1601 Market St
  36 stories · 74% daylit · 702 estimated homes · scores 61/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 380 ft away