300 Clay St

Where 300 Clay 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 736 ft of exterior wall, and across 24 residential floors the building carries 17,667 ft of it in total, divided among the 534 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.71: 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 22.3 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 300 Clay St scores 58 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 57, Interior depth 42, Scale 100, Finance 49 — 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 42 out of 100: deepest interior point 63 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1967

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1967, 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 68% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 733,353 sq ft of converted floor, or $297.0M in total — about $556K for each of the 534 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 232,680 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 534 homes is $195.4M.

What would have to be true

A $101.6M gap before any grant, $91.6M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 32% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $101.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 534 homes finishing at $556K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 52% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $267 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $537K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $91.6M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 300 Clay St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 300 Clay St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

300 Clay St ranks 181st of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 9% of them, and shallower than 20% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 15th 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

149th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 86th 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. 300 Clay St ranks 149th 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 63 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. 300 Clay St ranks 86th 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 63 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 300 Clay St in converted floor area is 50 Beale St: 675,278 sq ft over 24 stories, against 733,353 sq ft over 25 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 58 here, 59 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 1,800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 300 Clay 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 300 Clay St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 570 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 248 Front St
  8 stories · 87% daylit · 87 estimated homes · scores 85/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 570 ft away
• 500 Sansome St
  8 stories · 81% daylit · 97 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 590 ft away
• 280 Battery St
  23 stories · 84% daylit · 311 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 630 ft away
• 450 Sansome St
  16 stories · 93% daylit · 133 estimated homes · scores 94/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 640 ft away