234 1st St

Where 234 1st 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

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

The typical floor has 514 ft of exterior wall, and across 6 residential floors the building carries 3,084 ft of it in total, divided among the 83 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.65: 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 13.8 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 234 1st St scores 93 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 55, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 55 out of 100: 83 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1900

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1900, 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 96% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 81,356 sq ft of converted floor, or $32.9M in total — about $397K for each of the 83 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 3,172 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 83 homes is $30.4M.

What would have to be true

A $2.6M gap before any grant, which the modeled $5.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 6% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $2.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 83 homes finishing at $397K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 8% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $373 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $5.0M moves that threshold to $337K a home. That is below the assumed value, which is why this building counts as unlocked by the grant — subject to it qualifying under the law's vacant-and-abandoned test, which this data cannot show.

Each of these, moved on its own, would be enough to undo that for 234 1st St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 234 1st St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

234 1st St ranks 43rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 61% of them, and shallower than 68% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 134th 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

40th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 11th 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. 234 1st St ranks 40th 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 37 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). 234 1st St ranks 11th 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 37 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: 720 California St

The screened building closest to 234 1st St in converted floor area is 720 California St: 81,283 sq ft over 7 stories, against 81,356 sq ft over 7 here.

234 1st St scores 93 to its 74, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 100 out of 100 here, 56 there (deepest interior point 57 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they part ways: 720 California St falls short even with the modeled grant, while 234 1st St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 3,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 234 1st St $5.0M, 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 234 1st St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 150 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 505 Howard St
  10 stories · 65% daylit · 213 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
  about 150 ft away
• 543 Howard St
  5 stories · 93% daylit · 56 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 280 ft away
• 235 1st St
  10 stories · 54% daylit · 347 estimated homes · scores 32/100 (Marginal)
  about 340 ft away
• 500 Howard St
  10 stories · 69% daylit · 187 estimated homes · scores 52/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 400 ft away