255 Battery St

Where 255 Battery 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

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

The typical floor has 480 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 3,360 ft of it in total, divided among the 88 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.79: 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 12.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 255 Battery St scores 73 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 85, Interior depth 51, Scale 59, Finance 86 — 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 51 out of 100: deepest interior point 60 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1946

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1946, which puts it in the post-war stock.

As a rule, the period when plates got deep and facades became curtain wall: sealed glazing, lower floor-to-floor heights, and mechanical systems designed around a sealed box. Conversions here usually turn on whether the windows can be made to open and whether ceilings survive new plumbing. 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 83% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 100,774 sq ft of converted floor, or $40.8M in total — about $464K for each of the 88 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 17,486 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 88 homes is $32.2M.

What would have to be true

A $8.6M gap before any grant, $3.3M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 7% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $8.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 88 homes finishing at $464K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 27% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $320 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $5.3M moves that threshold to $404K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $3.3M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 255 Battery St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 255 Battery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

255 Battery St ranks 137th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 38% of them, and shallower than 31% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 130th 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

111th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 71st 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. 255 Battery St ranks 111th 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 60 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. 255 Battery St ranks 71st 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 60 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: 150 Hayes St

The screened building closest to 255 Battery St in converted floor area is 150 Hayes St: 99,561 sq ft over 6 stories, against 100,774 sq ft over 8 here.

255 Battery St scores 73 to its 64, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 85 out of 100 here, 72 there (76% 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 7,800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 255 Battery St $5.3M, 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 255 Battery 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.

• 350 California St
  22 stories · 82% daylit · 303 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 140 ft away
• 241 Battery St
  30 stories · 79% daylit · 408 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 150 ft away
• 191 Battery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 77 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 190 ft away
• 483 Sacramento St
  10 stories · 89% daylit · 98 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 230 ft away