325 Chestnut St

Where 325 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

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

The typical floor has 627 ft of exterior wall, and across 12 residential floors the building carries 7,523 ft of it in total, divided among the 211 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.61: 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 17.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 325 Chestnut St scores 80 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 93, Interior depth 70, 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 1956

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1956, which puts it in the post-war stock.

As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. 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 87% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 228,576 sq ft of converted floor, or $82.3M in total — about $390K for each of the 211 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 30,654 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 211 homes is $41.5M.

What would have to be true

A $40.8M gap before any grant, $30.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 43% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $40.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 211 homes finishing at $390K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 98% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $182 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $343K a home. That is still above the $197K assumed, leaving $30.8M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 325 Chestnut St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 325 Chestnut St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

325 Chestnut St ranks 37th of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 61% of them, and shallower than 56% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 53rd 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 CMX4 zone

3rd of 15 zoned CMX4 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

15 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX4. 325 Chestnut St ranks 3rd of them against a median score of 58. 5 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 64 ft from a facade against this building’s 52 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 4,016 homes. The group’s top scorer is 901 Arch St, at 84.

Its nearest match in size: 1420 Walnut St

The screened building closest to 325 Chestnut St in converted floor area is 1420 Walnut St: 208,044 sq ft over 15 stories, against 228,576 sq ft over 13 here.

325 Chestnut St scores 80 to its 92, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 70 out of 100 here, 100 there (deepest interior point 38 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 5,100 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 325 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 325 Chestnut St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 340 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 330 Market St
  4 stories · 77% daylit · 45 estimated homes · scores 53/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 340 ft away
• 399 Market St
  5 stories · 67% daylit · 80 estimated homes · scores 40/100 (Marginal)
  about 580 ft away
• 232 Market St
  5 stories · 100% daylit · 39 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 620 ft away
• 101 N Independence Mall E
  11 stories · 63% daylit · 327 estimated homes · scores 46/100 (Marginal)
  about 650 ft away