601 Montgomery St

Where 601 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

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 470 ft of exterior wall, and across 19 residential floors the building carries 8,937 ft of it in total, divided among the 240 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.81: close to a square or a circle, the most efficient envelope an office can have and the least generous one for apartments: little perimeter to divide among homes. How window line and plate shape are measured.

At the model’s 750 sq ft average, the plan works out at about 12.6 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 601 Montgomery St scores 83 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 87, Interior depth 65, Scale 100, Finance 82 — 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 65 out of 100: deepest interior point 54 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1978

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1978, 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 83% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 270,910 sq ft of converted floor, or $109.7M in total — about $457K for each of the 240 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 45,131 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 240 homes is $87.8M.

What would have to be true

A $21.9M gap before any grant, $11.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 12% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $21.9M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 240 homes finishing at $457K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 25% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $324 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $10.0M moves that threshold to $415K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $11.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 601 Montgomery St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 601 Montgomery St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

601 Montgomery St ranks 118th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 41% of them, and shallower than 41% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 72nd 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

6th of 12 in Chinatown, 61st 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. 601 Montgomery St ranks 6th 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. 601 Montgomery St ranks 61st 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: 555 Montgomery St

The screened building closest to 601 Montgomery St in converted floor area is 555 Montgomery St: 265,851 sq ft over 20 stories, against 270,910 sq ft over 20 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 83 here, 84 there — so at this size the screen reads them as much the same prospect. On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 200 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 601 Montgomery 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 601 Montgomery St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 160 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 160 ft away
• 540 Montgomery St
  10 stories · 100% daylit · 62 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 260 ft away
• 603 Commercial St
  24 stories · 81% daylit · 303 estimated homes · scores 77/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 320 ft away
• 475 Sansome St
  20 stories · 76% daylit · 336 estimated homes · scores 74/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 470 ft away