401 California St

Where 401 California 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

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

The typical floor has 335 ft of exterior wall, and across 25 residential floors the building carries 8,381 ft of it in total, divided among the 181 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.78: 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 7.2 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 401 California St scores 100 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 98, Scale 100, Finance 100 — 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 1968

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1968, 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 97% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 175,072 sq ft of converted floor, or $70.9M in total — about $392K for each of the 181 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 4,626 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 181 homes is $66.2M.

What would have to be true

A $4.7M gap before any grant, which the modeled $10.0M closes. What would reopen it soonest: completed value per home 8% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $4.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 181 homes finishing at $392K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 7% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $378 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $336K 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 401 California St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 401 California St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

401 California St ranks 20th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 65% of them, and shallower than 62% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 93rd 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

19th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 16th 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. 401 California St ranks 19th 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. 401 California St ranks 16th 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: 431 Natoma St

The screened building closest to 401 California St in converted floor area is 431 Natoma St: 181,513 sq ft over 25 stories, against 175,072 sq ft over 26 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 100 here, 100 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 4,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 401 California 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 401 California St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 100 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 433 California St
  11 stories · 85% daylit · 129 estimated homes · scores 84/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 100 ft away
• 351 California St
  16 stories · 100% daylit · 162 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 170 ft away
• 340 Pine St
  8 stories · 100% daylit · 58 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away
• 430 California St
  21 stories · 88% daylit · 215 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away