180 Howard St

Where 180 Howard 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 534 ft of exterior wall, and across 12 residential floors the building carries 6,403 ft of it in total, divided among the 178 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.80: 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 14.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 180 Howard St scores 67 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 74, Interior depth 32, Scale 100, Finance 75 — 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 32 out of 100: deepest interior point 67 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1981

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1981, 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 77% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 218,210 sq ft of converted floor, or $88.4M in total — about $496K for each of the 178 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 50,540 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 178 homes is $65.1M.

What would have to be true

A $23.2M gap before any grant, $13.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 17% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $23.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 178 homes finishing at $496K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 36% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $299 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $440K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $13.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 180 Howard St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 180 Howard St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

180 Howard St ranks 158th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 26% of them, and shallower than 16% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 94th 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

129th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 42nd 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. 180 Howard St ranks 129th 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 67 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). 180 Howard St ranks 42nd 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 67 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: 201 Sacramento St

The screened building closest to 180 Howard St in converted floor area is 201 Sacramento St: 225,622 sq ft over 13 stories, against 218,210 sq ft over 13 here.

180 Howard St scores 67 to its 99, and with the size held roughly equal most of that shortfall comes from interior depth: 32 out of 100 here, 98 there (deepest interior point 41 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 1,700 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 180 Howard 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 180 Howard St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 140 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 155 Main St
  19 stories · 83% daylit · 244 estimated homes · scores 81/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 140 ft away
• 120 Howard St
  12 stories · 77% daylit · 171 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 150 ft away
• 211 Main St
  17 stories · 70% daylit · 286 estimated homes · scores 53/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 230 ft away
• 101 Howard St
  5 stories · 78% daylit · 57 estimated homes · scores 62/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 260 ft away