555 Market St

Where 555 Market 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 645 ft of exterior wall, and across 20 residential floors the building carries 12,910 ft of it in total, divided among the 364 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.66: 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 18.2 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 555 Market St scores 66 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 75, Interior depth 30, Scale 100, Finance 67 — 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 30 out of 100: deepest interior point 68 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1964

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1964, 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 78% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 440,589 sq ft of converted floor, or $178.4M in total — about $490K for each of the 364 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 98,854 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 364 homes is $133.2M.

What would have to be true

A $45.2M gap before any grant, $35.2M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 21% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $45.2M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 364 homes finishing at $490K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 34% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $302 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $463K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $35.2M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 555 Market St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 555 Market St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

555 Market St ranks 161st of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 27% of them, and shallower than 14% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 40th 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

132nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 44th 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. 555 Market St ranks 132nd 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 68 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). 555 Market St ranks 44th 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 68 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: 75 Hawthorne St

The screened building closest to 555 Market St in converted floor area is 75 Hawthorne St: 430,701 sq ft over 20 stories, against 440,589 sq ft over 21 here.

555 Market St scores 66 to its 61, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from daylight efficiency: 75 out of 100 here, 64 there (72% 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 1,700 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 555 Market 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 555 Market St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 150 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 49 Stevenson St
  15 stories · 95% daylit · 140 estimated homes · scores 99/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 150 ft away
• 575 Market St
  40 stories · 91% daylit · 489 estimated homes · scores 97/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 200 ft away
• 71 Stevenson St
  23 stories · 80% daylit · 403 estimated homes · scores 72/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 210 ft away
• 40 Jessie St
  5 stories · 100% daylit · 27 estimated homes · scores 88/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 220 ft away