225 Bush St

Where 225 Bush 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

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 1,042 ft of exterior wall, and across 21 residential floors the building carries 21,878 ft of it in total, divided among the 661 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is elongated at 0.35: a slab or an L, which is why so much of the floor lies within reach of a window: the outline buys daylight that a square plan of the same area would not. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 31.5 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 225 Bush St scores 99 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 97, Scale 100, Finance 97 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Every component scores at or near full marks, so nothing in the geometry or the pro-forma is holding this one back — daylight efficiency carries the most weight of the four.

Built in 1921

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1921, 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 98% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 633,274 sq ft of converted floor, or $256.5M in total — about $388K for each of the 661 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 13,197 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 661 homes is $241.9M.

What would have to be true

A $14.6M gap before any grant, $4.6M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 2% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $14.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 661 homes finishing at $388K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 6% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $382 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $373K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $4.6M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 225 Bush St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 225 Bush St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

225 Bush St ranks 25th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 66% of them, and shallower than 60% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 10th 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 zone

24th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 18th of 88 zoned C-3-O — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 225 Bush St ranks 24th 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 41 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

88 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O. 225 Bush St ranks 18th of them against a median score of 89. 76 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 44 ft from a facade against this building’s 41 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 21,444 homes. The group’s top scorer is 266 Bush St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 50 Beale St

The screened building closest to 225 Bush St in converted floor area is 50 Beale St: 675,278 sq ft over 24 stories, against 633,274 sq ft over 22 here.

225 Bush St scores 99 to its 59, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 100 out of 100 here, 58 there (69% 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 1,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 225 Bush 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 225 Bush St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1 Sansome St
  41 stories · 81% daylit · 528 estimated homes · scores 76/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 234 Bush St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 70 estimated homes · scores 92/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 190 ft away
• 220 Bush St
  22 stories · 100% daylit · 161 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 200 ft away
• 295 Bush St
  25 stories · 85% daylit · 284 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 220 ft away