543 Howard St

543 Howard St is a 5-story building in Downtown San Francisco with 93% of its floor area within daylight reach of a facade. This screen estimates 56 homes and scores it 87 out of 100 for office-to-residential conversion suitability.

CA-11 · Screened 2026-10-12 · Strong candidate

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Also addressed as 38 Tehama St and 44 Tehama St: San Francisco’s address records place all 3 on this one footprint.

Where 543 Howard St is

Its block in Downtown San Francisco, drawn from San Francisco's own building outlines and street centerlines.

Suitability score

0–29

30–49

50–69

70–100

Already housing
Not screened
543 Howard St

543 Howard St and the 1,000 ft of Downtown San Francisco around it. The streets are drawn at the width of the right-of-way they run down, sidewalks included, and named, and every building on these blocks is drawn. What is left open and stippled is neither: a surface lot, a plaza or a vacant parcel. The screened buildings are colored by the ramp above, the same one the district map uses, carry their score, and each is a link to its own page. Each casts a shadow as long as its measured height lets it, so towers stand out from the low buildings around them; the unscreened buildings have no measured height and cast none. 543 Howard St is outlined in its own score color at the outline it covers at ground level. Its windowless core is hatched. The inset places it among every building the screen covers.

Floor plan: 93% of each floor sits within daylight reach of a facade. The shading is daylight, darkest at the windows and gone 35 ft in. The hatched area is windowless core: 1,045 sq ft per floor that must be renovated but can never be rented as an apartment. The dimension marks the deepest interior point, 46 ft from the nearest window. A–A is where the section beside it is cut.

Section A–A: cut across the depth of the plate, through the middle of the core. Daylight reaches 35 ft in from every facade, fading as it goes, and the hatched stripe left between the lit edges is floor that gets converted and can never be rented: 1,045 sq ft on the floor the screen scores, and 4,179 sq ft over 4 residential floors. The shaded ground floor is converted like the rest and counted as no homes.

This building does not pencil on its own, but a modeled RESIDE Act grant would close the gap if the building qualified for one.

Every floor carries 1,045 sq ft of windowless core — area that must be gutted, seismically braced and sprinklered but can never be rented as an apartment. Across 4 residential floors that is 4,179 sq ft of cost carrying no revenue.

Modeled conversion metrics for 543 Howard St, 2026-10-12.

Suitability scoreStrong candidate	87 / 100
Storiesfrom 63 ft LiDAR (2010) height ÷ 12 ft floor-to-floor	5
Floor plateper floor, from the city footprint	14,238 sq ft
Daylight efficiencyshare within 35 ft of a facade	93%
Deepest interior pointviability threshold is 80 ft	46 ft
Windowless coreper floor — renovated but never rentable	1,045 sq ft
Estimated homesat 750 sq ft average	56
Conversion cost$405/sq ft all-in on 56,953 sq ft	$23.1M
Gap before grantshortfall against completed value	$2.6M
Modeled RESIDE grantbelow the statutory cap	$3.4M
BuiltSan Francisco publishes construction years, but none matched this footprint	—
ZoningFinancial District/South Beach	C-3-O(SD)
Opportunity Zonenot in a 2018 designated tract	No

The plan: window line, shape and floor rhythm

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

The typical floor has 525 ft of exterior wall, and across 4 residential floors the building carries 2,099 ft of it in total, divided among the 56 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.65: 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 14.0 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 543 Howard St scores 87 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 85, Scale 37, Finance 100 — each out of 100, then weighted.

Score components for 543 Howard St. Points are the subscore times its weight.

Component	Subscore	Weight	Points
Daylight efficiency93% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%	100	45%	45.0
Interior depthdeepest interior point 46 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft	85	25%	21.2
Scale56 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150	37	15%	5.6
Financecompleted value covers conversion cost with 3% to spare, which tops out the component	100	15%	15.0

Most of what it earns comes from daylight efficiency, and what holds it back most is scale, at 37 out of 100: 56 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 56,953 sq ft of converted floor, or $23.1M in total — about $412K for each of the 56 homes.

All-in cost per square foot for 543 Howard St: base cost plus the code work a change of use triggers.

Base conversion cost	$260/sq ft
Seismic retrofit (change of use)	$45/sq ft
Plumbing risers to every unit	$40/sq ft
Operable windows and glazing	$30/sq ft
Additional egress stair	$18/sq ft
Fire sprinklers (NFPA 13R)	$12/sq ft
All-in	$405/sq ft

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 4,179 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 56 homes is $20.5M.

What would have to be true

A $2.6M gap before any grant, which the modeled $3.4M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 2% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $2.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 56 homes finishing at $412K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 13% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $360 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $3.4M moves that threshold to $352K 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 543 Howard St:

Single-assumption flip points for 543 Howard St, each holding the other three at their defaults.

Circulation efficiencythe binding constraint — the least this building would need	2% downto 78%
Average unit size	2% upto 768 sq ft
Completed value per home	4% downto $352K
Conversion cost per square foot	5% upto $274/sq ft

All four are sliders in the survey, where 543 Howard St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

543 Howard St ranks 104th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 56% of them, and shallower than 54% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 170th 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

87th of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 22nd 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. 543 Howard St ranks 87th 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 46 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). 543 Howard St ranks 22nd 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 46 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: 440 Mission St

The screened building closest to 543 Howard St in converted floor area is 440 Mission St: 59,169 sq ft over 5 stories, against 56,953 sq ft over 5 here.

543 Howard St scores 87 to its 70, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 100 out of 100 here, 85 there (82% of the floor area within 35 ft of a facade, scored from 40% up to 90%). On the money they part ways: 440 Mission St falls short even with the modeled grant, while 543 Howard St pencils only with the modeled RESIDE grant. The two stand about 1,000 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 543 Howard St $3.4M, 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 543 Howard St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 200 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

505 Howard St
10 stories · 65% daylit · 213 estimated homes · scores 35/100 (Marginal)
about 200 ft away
234 1st St
7 stories · 96% daylit · 83 estimated homes · scores 93/100 (Strong candidate)
about 280 ft away
500 Howard St
10 stories · 69% daylit · 187 estimated homes · scores 52/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
about 320 ft away
235 1st St
10 stories · 54% daylit · 347 estimated homes · scores 32/100 (Marginal)
about 560 ft away

A screen, not a feasibility study, from outlines and heights rather than plans: the method and how to correct a figure. If you know this building’s interior, you know what this model cannot see.