71 2nd St

Where 71 2nd 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

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

The typical floor has 567 ft of exterior wall, and across 7 residential floors the building carries 3,967 ft of it in total, divided among the 111 homes this screen estimates.

Its plate is compact at 0.76: 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 15.9 homes per floor, repeated on every residential floor, since this building's outline does not change as it rises.

Why 71 2nd St scores 69 out of 100

Daylight efficiency 73, Interior depth 54, Scale 74, Finance 76 — 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 54 out of 100: deepest interior point 58 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft.

Built in 1898

San Francisco records this building as going up in 1898, 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 77% daylight figure above deserves.

What the conversion would cost

$405 per square foot all-in across 136,322 sq ft of converted floor, or $55.2M in total — about $497K for each of the 111 homes.

That cost is charged across every converted square foot, including the 31,773 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 111 homes is $40.6M.

What would have to be true

A $14.6M gap before any grant, $7.9M after the modeled one. The smallest single change that would close it: average unit size 14% down.

The shortfall before any grant is $14.6M. Closing it from the value side means each of the 111 homes finishing at $497K rather than the $366K the model assumes — 36% more. Closing it from the cost side means getting all-in cost down from $405 to $298 per square foot.

A modeled RESIDE grant of $6.7M moves that threshold to $437K a home. That is still above the $366K assumed, leaving $7.9M uncovered, which is why the grant does not unlock this one.

Nor do all four levers have to move. For 71 2nd St, one alone would close the gap at:

All four are sliders in the survey, where 71 2nd St re-scores against your own numbers.

How it compares in Downtown San Francisco

71 2nd St ranks 150th of the 205 buildings screened here, against a median score of 87.

Its floor plate is better lit than 25% of them, and shallower than 33% of them at its deepest interior point. On size it is the 121st 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

122nd of 165 in Financial District/South Beach, 38th 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. 71 2nd St ranks 122nd 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 58 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). 71 2nd St ranks 38th 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 58 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: 25 Hickory St

The screened building closest to 71 2nd St in converted floor area is 25 Hickory St: 143,363 sq ft over 8 stories, against 136,322 sq ft over 8 here.

71 2nd St scores 69 to its 65, and with the size held roughly equal most of that lead comes from interior depth: 54 out of 100 here, 43 there (deepest interior point 63 ft from a facade, scored from 80 ft down to 40 ft). On the money they sit in the same place: each falls short even with the modeled grant. The two stand about 7,400 ft apart.

Would it qualify for a RESIDE Act grant?

The model awards 71 2nd St $6.7M, 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 71 2nd 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.

• 560 Mission St
  31 stories · 77% daylit · 504 estimated homes · scores 73/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 180 ft away
• 55 2nd St
  24 stories · 77% daylit · 404 estimated homes · scores 70/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 190 ft away
• 101 2nd St
  26 stories · 77% daylit · 548 estimated homes · scores 67/100 (Worth a feasibility study)
  about 240 ft away
• 118 2nd St
  6 stories · 97% daylit · 40 estimated homes · scores 89/100 (Strong candidate)
  about 280 ft away