211 N 13th St

Where 211 N 13th 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

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

The typical floor has 411 ft of exterior wall, and across 8 residential floors the building carries 3,285 ft of it in total, divided among the 78 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.75: 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 9.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 211 N 13th St scores 81 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 85, Scale 52, 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 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 92% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 80,491 sq ft of converted floor, or $29.0M in total — about $371K for each of the 78 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 6,679 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 78 homes is $15.3M.

What would have to be true

A $13.6M gap before any grant, $9.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 30% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $13.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 78 homes finishing at $371K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 89% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $191 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $4.7M moves that threshold to $311K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $9.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 211 N 13th St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 211 N 13th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

211 N 13th St ranks 32nd of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 70% of them, and shallower than 67% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 73rd 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 CMX3 zone

4th of 14 zoned CMX3 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

14 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX3. 211 N 13th St ranks 4th of them against a median score of 73. 8 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 53 ft from a facade against this building’s 46 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 1,122 homes. The group’s top scorer is 461 N 3rd St, at 84.

Its nearest match in size: 1326 Chestnut St

The screened building closest to 211 N 13th St in converted floor area is 1326 Chestnut St: 71,663 sq ft over 8 stories, against 80,491 sq ft over 9 here.

211 N 13th St scores 81 to its 87, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 85 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 21 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 2,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 211 N 13th St $4.7M, 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.

This building does sit in census tract 42101000200, a 2018 designated Opportunity Zone, which Section 201 lets HUD favor — one of the few statutory priorities this screen can actually check.

Other buildings screened near 211 N 13th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 1,070 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 112 N Broad St
  13 stories · 100% daylit · 144 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 1,070 ft away
• 319 N 11th St
  6 stories · 95% daylit · 44 estimated homes · scores 82/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 1,220 ft away
• 1025 Callowhill St
  5 stories · 88% daylit · 50 estimated homes · scores 73/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 1,480 ft away
• 1101 Market St
  32 stories · 67% daylit · 846 estimated homes · scores 50/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 1,590 ft away