49 Stevenson St

Where 49 Stevenson 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

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

The typical floor has 422 ft of exterior wall, and across 14 residential floors the building carries 5,910 ft of it in total, divided among the 140 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.70: 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 10.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 49 Stevenson St scores 99 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 93, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 93 out of 100: 140 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1989

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1989, which puts it in the late-modern stock.

As a rule, typically the hardest to convert: the deepest plates of any era, large central cores, and floor-to-floor heights tight enough that running residential drainage under a ceiling can be the thing that ends a project. 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 95% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 138,334 sq ft of converted floor, or $56.0M in total — about $400K for each of the 140 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 6,889 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 140 homes is $51.2M.

What would have to be true

A $4.8M gap before any grant, which the modeled $8.4M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 6% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $4.8M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 140 homes finishing at $400K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 9% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $370 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $8.4M moves that threshold to $340K 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 49 Stevenson St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 49 Stevenson St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

49 Stevenson St ranks 23rd of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 60% of them, and shallower than 64% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 109th 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(SD) zone

22nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 4th of 66 zoned C-3-O(SD) — the comparison that shares its rules, rents and streets.

San Francisco places 165 of the screened buildings in Financial District/South Beach. 49 Stevenson St ranks 22nd 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 40 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 40,456 homes. The group’s top scorer is 870 Market St, at 100.

66 of the screened buildings are zoned C-3-O(SD). 49 Stevenson St ranks 4th of them against a median score of 72. 37 score 70 or more, their median deepest interior point is 59 ft from a facade against this building’s 40 ft, and together they would hold an estimated 18,546 homes. The group’s top scorer is 140 New Montgomery St, at 100.

Its nearest match in size: 200 Bush St

The screened building closest to 49 Stevenson St in converted floor area is 200 Bush St: 144,196 sq ft over 15 stories, against 138,334 sq ft over 15 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 99 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 800 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 49 Stevenson St $8.4M, 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 49 Stevenson St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 70 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 40 Jessie St
  5 stories · 100% daylit · 27 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 70 ft away
• 555 Market St
  21 stories · 78% daylit · 364 estimated homes · scores 66/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 150 ft away
• 71 Stevenson St
  23 stories · 80% daylit · 403 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 160 ft away
• 25 Jessie St
  17 stories · 99% daylit · 109 estimated homes · scores 96/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away