34 S 11th St

Where 34 S 11th 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

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

The typical floor has 751 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 5,254 ft of it in total, divided among the 159 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.63: 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 22.7 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 34 S 11th St scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 70, Interior depth 67, Scale 100, Finance 28 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is finance, at 28 out of 100: remaining gap is 43% of conversion cost, scored from 60% down to 0%.

Built in 1918

Philadelphia records this building as going up in 1918, 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 75% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$360 per square foot all-in across 199,066 sq ft of converted floor, or $71.7M in total — about $451K for each of the 159 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 49,980 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 159 homes is $31.3M.

What would have to be true

A $40.4M gap before any grant, $30.8M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 49% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $40.4M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 159 homes finishing at $451K rather than the $197K the model assumes — 129% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $360 to $157 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $9.5M moves that threshold to $391K 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 34 S 11th St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 34 S 11th St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Center City Philadelphia

34 S 11th St ranks 51st of the 103 buildings screened here, against a median score of 67.

Its floor plate is better lit than 44% of them, and shallower than 54% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 58th 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

32nd of 65 zoned CMX5 — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

65 of the screened buildings are zoned CMX5. 34 S 11th St ranks 32nd 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 53 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: 520 N Christopher Columbus Blvd

The screened building closest to 34 S 11th St in converted floor area is 520 N Christopher Columbus Blvd: 179,218 sq ft over 8 stories, against 199,066 sq ft over 8 here.

34 S 11th St scores 67 to its 42, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 67 out of 100 here, 2 there (deepest interior point 79 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 6,700 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 34 S 11th St $9.5M, 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 34 S 11th St

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.

• 15 S 11th St
  5 stories · 98% daylit · 27 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 200 ft away
• 1207 Chestnut St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 40 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 420 ft away
• 1211 Chestnut St
  12 stories · 100% daylit · 126 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 470 ft away
• 1101 Market St
  32 stories · 67% daylit · 846 estimated homes · scores 50/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 530 ft away