44 Montgomery St

Where 44 Montgomery 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

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

The typical floor has 657 ft of exterior wall, and across 42 residential floors the building carries 27,608 ft of it in total, divided among the 787 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.58: 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 18.7 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 44 Montgomery St scores 89 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 96, Interior depth 74, Scale 100, Finance 79 — 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 74 out of 100: deepest interior point 50 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1966

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1966, 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 88% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 841,258 sq ft of converted floor, or $340.7M in total — about $433K for each of the 787 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 102,703 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 787 homes is $288.0M.

What would have to be true

A $52.7M gap before any grant, $42.7M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 13% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $52.7M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 787 homes finishing at $433K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 18% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $342 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $420K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $42.7M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 44 Montgomery St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 44 Montgomery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

44 Montgomery St ranks 91st of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 48% of them, and shallower than 47% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 4th 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

76th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 50th 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. 44 Montgomery St ranks 76th 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 50 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. 44 Montgomery St ranks 50th 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 50 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: 75 1st St

The screened building closest to 44 Montgomery St in converted floor area is 75 1st St: 860,176 sq ft over 42 stories, against 841,258 sq ft over 43 here.

44 Montgomery St scores 89 to its 64, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 96 out of 100 here, 66 there (73% 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 1,300 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 44 Montgomery 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 44 Montgomery St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 130 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 582 Market St
  21 stories · 100% daylit · 147 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 130 ft away
• 562 Market St
  7 stories · 100% daylit · 50 estimated homes · scores 90/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 100 Montgomery St
  25 stories · 74% daylit · 408 estimated homes · scores 65/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 200 ft away
• 41 Montgomery St
  24 stories · 100% daylit · 354 estimated homes · scores 100/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away