540 Montgomery St

Where 540 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

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

The typical floor has 341 ft of exterior wall, and across 9 residential floors the building carries 3,068 ft of it in total, divided among the 62 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 6.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 540 Montgomery St scores 91 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 41, 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 41 out of 100: 62 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1931

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1931, 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 100% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 58,619 sq ft of converted floor, or $23.7M in total — about $383K for each of the 62 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the circulation and service area that earns nothing directly. Against it the model sets a completed value of $366K a home, which for 62 homes is $22.7M.

What would have to be true

A $1.0M gap before any grant, which the modeled $3.7M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 10% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $1.0M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 62 homes finishing at $383K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 5% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $387 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $3.7M moves that threshold to $323K 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 540 Montgomery St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 540 Montgomery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

540 Montgomery St ranks 56th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 100% of them, and shallower than 80% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 159th 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

3rd of 12 in Chinatown, 33rd 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. 540 Montgomery St ranks 3rd 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 31 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. 540 Montgomery St ranks 33rd 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 31 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: 60 Maiden Ln

The screened building closest to 540 Montgomery St in converted floor area is 60 Maiden Ln: 55,943 sq ft over 10 stories, against 58,619 sq ft over 10 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 91 here, 91 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 2,200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 540 Montgomery St $3.7M, 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 540 Montgomery 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.

• 555 Montgomery St
  20 stories · 84% daylit · 238 estimated homes · scores 84/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 603 Commercial St
  24 stories · 81% daylit · 303 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 220 ft away
• 475 Sansome St
  20 stories · 76% daylit · 336 estimated homes · scores 74/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 601 Montgomery St
  20 stories · 83% daylit · 240 estimated homes · scores 83/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away