606 Howard St

Where 606 Howard 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

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

The typical floor has 485 ft of exterior wall, and across 5 residential floors the building carries 2,426 ft of it in total, divided among the 47 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is moderately compact at 0.48: 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 9.4 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 606 Howard St scores 90 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 100, Interior depth 100, Scale 31, 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 31 out of 100: 47 estimated homes, scored from 0 up to 150.

Built in 1904

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1904, which puts it in the pre-1920 stock.

As a rule, the era that converts most readily: load-bearing masonry, small floor plates laid out before deep-plan offices were possible, operable windows and generous floor-to-floor heights. The usual obstacles are not daylight but hazardous materials, lifts and bringing structure up to current code. 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 44,721 sq ft of converted floor, or $18.1M in total — about $385K for each of the 47 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 201 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 47 homes is $17.2M.

What would have to be true

A $910K gap before any grant, which the modeled $2.8M closes. What would reopen it soonest: circulation efficiency 9% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $910K. Closing it from the value side means each of the 47 homes finishing at $385K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 5% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $385 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $2.8M moves that threshold to $325K 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 606 Howard St:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 606 Howard St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

606 Howard St ranks 75th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 71% of them, and shallower than 68% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 178th 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

63rd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 15th 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. 606 Howard St ranks 63rd 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 37 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). 606 Howard St ranks 15th 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 37 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: 246 Sutter St

The screened building closest to 606 Howard St in converted floor area is 246 Sutter St: 44,390 sq ft over 6 stories, against 44,721 sq ft over 6 here.

The two land within a few points of each other — 90 here, 90 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 2,100 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 606 Howard St $2.8M, 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 606 Howard St

The 4 closest the screen also covers, from 80 ft away. They are the colored outlines on the plan at the top of this page.

• 182 2nd St
  4 stories · 97% daylit · 21 estimated homes · scores 87/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 80 ft away
• 222 2nd St
  26 stories · 73% daylit · 425 estimated homes · scores 63/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 220 ft away
• 137 New Montgomery St
  6 stories · 94% daylit · 64 estimated homes · scores 91/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 220 ft away
• 170 New Montgomery St
  8 stories · 74% daylit · 119 estimated homes · scores 62/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 240 ft away