170 New Montgomery St

Where 170 New Montgomery St is

Its block in Downtown San Francisco, drawn from San Francisco'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 615 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 4,306 ft of it in total, divided among the 119 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.72: 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 17.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 170 New Montgomery St scores 62 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 68, Interior depth 36, Scale 79, Finance 70 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is interior depth, at 36 out of 100: deepest interior point 66 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1920

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1920, 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 74% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 152,244 sq ft of converted floor, or $61.7M in total — about $518K for each of the 119 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 39,757 sq ft of windowless core, which has to be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered like the rest of the building and then earns nothing. Against it the model sets a completed value of $366K a home, which for 119 homes is $43.6M.

What would have to be true

A $18.1M gap before any grant, $11.0M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 17% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $18.1M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 119 homes finishing at $518K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 42% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $286 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.1M moves that threshold to $458K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $11.0M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 170 New Montgomery St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 170 New Montgomery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

170 New Montgomery St ranks 172nd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 19% of them, and shallower than 17% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 117th largest by estimated homes. The full survey of all 205 buildings ranks and maps every one of them, and the list by address links each to its own page.

Within Financial District/South Beach and the C-3-O(SD) zone

141st of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 50th of 66 zoned C-3-O(SD) — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 170 New Montgomery St ranks 141st of them against a median score of 88. 121 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 47 ft from a facade against this building’s 66 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

66 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O(SD). 170 New Montgomery St ranks 50th of them against a median score of 72. 37 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 59 ft from a facade against this building’s 66 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 18,546 homes. The group’s top scorer is 140 New Montgomery St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 42 Golden Gate Ave

The screened building closest to 170 New Montgomery St in converted floor area is 42 Golden Gate Ave: 154,241 sq ft over 7 stories, against 152,244 sq ft over 8 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 62 here, 61 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 3,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 170 New Montgomery St $7.1M, 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 170 New Montgomery St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 210 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 140 New Montgomery St
  26 stories · 100% daylit · 368 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away
• 606 Howard St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 47 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 240 ft away
• 137 New Montgomery St
  6 stories · 94% daylit · 64 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 182 2nd St
  4 stories · 97% daylit · 21 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away