30 S 15th St

Where 30 S 15th 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

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

The typical floor has 461 ft of exterior wall, and across 24 residential floors the building carries 11,073 ft of it in total, divided among the 278 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.70: 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 11.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 30 S 15th St scores 88 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 89, Scale 100, Finance 38 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 38 out of 100: remaining gap is 37% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1985

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1985, 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 91% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 285,012 sq ft of converted floor, or $102.6M in total — about $369K for each of the 278 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 24,344 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 278 homes is $54.7M.

What would have to be true

A $47.9M gap before any grant, $37.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 41% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $47.9M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 278 homes finishing at $369K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 88% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $192 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $333K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $37.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 30 S 15th St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 30 S 15th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

30 S 15th St ranks 15th of the 100 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 68% of them, and shallower than 69% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 39th 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

15th of 63 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

63 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 30 S 15th St ranks 15th 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 45 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: 1524 Walnut St

The screened building closest to 30 S 15th St in converted floor area is 1524 Walnut St: 271,959 sq ft over 21 stories, against 285,012 sq ft over 25 here.

30 S 15th St scores 88 to its 81, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 100 out of 100 here, 92 there (86% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 900 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 30 S 15th 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 30 S 15th St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 240 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1500 Market St
  43 stories · 46% daylit · 1,854 estimated homes · scores 21/100 (Unlikely)
  about 240 ft away
• 1524 Chestnut St
  4 stories · 100% daylit · 32 estimated homes · scores 82/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 370 ft away
• 1600 Market St
  39 stories · 75% daylit · 702 estimated homes · scores 55/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 540 ft away
• 100 S Broad St
  22 stories · 97% daylit · 610 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 550 ft away