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Maybe we could get them converted to residential units to get cheaper housing.
Only some office buildings can be converted into reasonably shaped apartments, particularly those built before WW2, when architects wanted more natural light. After WW2, office buildings became a lot deeper because of expanded use of electric lights.
But there are ways to make more useful shapes out of those open floor plans.
Free NYT article link
Make apartments on the sides and use the middle for cool stuff like cinema rooms and ball pits.
Per the article, it seems that the main barrier here is that it is currently not economically worthwhile to convert these buildings, as the conversions require massive changes to the buildings themselves. If the value of these properties fall enough, however, it could easily become an attractive proposition for these buildings. A continued push for work from home can hopefully damage these property values enough to make it feasible.
It’s really expensive to do it safely and really dangerous to do it cheaply. Avoid commercial to residential conversions.
Why? I don't know why to avoid it
Because you don’t want to die in a collapse.
The loads you’re designing for in a building intended for commercial use are lower and more uniform than the loads you’re looking at when you wanna slap together something for industrial or residential use.
Office and retail spaces are not designed to bear the heaver load of residential use or the combination of weird flexing, torsion and heavier loads involved in industrial applications.
Those warehouse spaces can be safely converted to lofts by just framing them in. Office buildings need structural changes to become safe living space in addition to all the utility stuff.
That totally makes sense, And that is horrifying
Isn't it really expensive converting officespace to residential though? Given the layout of plumbing, elevators etc. Would assume that alot of the time it would just be cheaper to tear it down ☹️
It's just like converting anything else into a multifamily building.
Where I live many offices have already been converted to apartments.
We have all the old factories converted into apartments around here. It's pretty cool. Even old churches have been turned into apartment buildings.
The plural of anecdote isn't data.
If it was, we'd not have smoke detectors. After all, most people have gone through 12,000 days without a house fire, so there's no value.
Its what AB 1532 is trying to achieve in California. Given that the building is already there, there will be less vectors for nimbys to prevent the construction of said building (as its already up and approved)