475 Sansome St

Where 475 Sansome 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 623 ft of exterior wall, and across 19 residential floors the building carries 11,828 ft of it in total, divided among the 336 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 17.7 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 475 Sansome St scores 74 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 73, Interior depth 64, Scale 100, Finance 66 — 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 64 out of 100: deepest interior point 54 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1969

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1969, 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 76% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 413,692 sq ft of converted floor, or $167.5M in total — about $499K for each of the 336 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 97,839 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 336 homes is $123.0M.

What would have to be true

A $44.6M gap before any grant, $34.6M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 22% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $44.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 336 homes finishing at $499K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 36% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $297 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $469K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $34.6M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 475 Sansome St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 475 Sansome St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

475 Sansome St ranks 136th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 24% of them, and shallower than 40% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 45th 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 Chinatown and the C-3-O zone

9th of 12 in Chinatown, 70th of 88 zoned C-3-O — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 12 of the screened buildings in Chinatown. 475 Sansome St ranks 9th of them against a median score of 80. 11 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 54 ft from a facade against this building’s 54 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 2,335 homes. The group’s top scorer is 505 Sansome St, at 99.

88 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O. 475 Sansome St ranks 70th 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 54 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 Hawthorne St

The screened building closest to 475 Sansome St in converted floor area is 75 Hawthorne St: 430,701 sq ft over 20 stories, against 413,692 sq ft over 20 here.

475 Sansome St scores 74 to its 61, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 64 out of 100 here, 34 there (deepest interior point 66 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 3,500 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 475 Sansome 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 475 Sansome St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 180 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 505 Sansome St
  20 stories · 93% daylit · 194 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 450 Sansome St
  16 stories · 93% daylit · 133 estimated homes · scores 94/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 230 ft away
• 540 Montgomery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 62 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 500 Sansome St
  8 stories · 81% daylit · 97 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 290 ft away