42 Golden Gate Ave

Where 42 Golden Gate Ave 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

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

The typical floor has 673 ft of exterior wall, and across 6 residential floors the building carries 4,040 ft of it in total, divided among the 118 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 19.7 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 42 Golden Gate Ave scores 61 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 64, Interior depth 41, Scale 79, Finance 67 — 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 41 out of 100: deepest interior point 64 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1922

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1922, 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 72% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 154,241 sq ft of converted floor, or $62.5M in total — about $529K for each of the 118 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 43,464 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 118 homes is $43.2M.

What would have to be true

A $19.3M gap before any grant, $12.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 20% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $19.3M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 118 homes finishing at $529K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 45% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $280 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $7.1M moves that threshold to $469K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $12.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 42 Golden Gate Ave, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 42 Golden Gate Ave re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

42 Golden Gate Ave ranks 176th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 13% of them, and shallower than 19% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 118th 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 Tenderloin and the C-3-G zone

6th of 7 in Tenderloin, 16th of 22 zoned C-3-G — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 7 of the screened buildings in Tenderloin. 42 Golden Gate Ave ranks 6th of them against a median score of 89. 4 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 34 ft from a facade against this building’s 64 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 499 homes. The group’s top scorer is 40 Leavenworth St, at 92.

22 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-G. 42 Golden Gate Ave ranks 16th of them against a median score of 76. 13 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 51 ft from a facade against this building’s 64 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,588 homes. The group’s top scorer is 40 Leavenworth St, at 92.

Its nearest match in size: 170 New Montgomery St

The screened building closest to 42 Golden Gate Ave in converted floor area is 170 New Montgomery St: 152,244 sq ft over 8 stories, against 154,241 sq ft over 7 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 61 here, 62 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 3,600 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 42 Golden Gate Ave $7.1M, 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 42 Golden Gate Ave

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 390 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 1017 Market St
  6 stories · 99% daylit · 58 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 390 ft away
• 979 Market St
  6 stories · 82% daylit · 75 estimated homes · scores 75/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 450 ft away
• 1059 Market St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 47 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 580 ft away
• 1067 Market St
  6 stories · 100% daylit · 42 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 640 ft away