3 ms·

What % of office buildings do you think can be converted into residential?

• gumby 4y ago
  Seems to me the main constraint would be floor/window ratios. Apartment buildings often have windows just along one wall, and that works. So I don't see why 100% of class A office space couldn't be converted, not that I'm any kind of expert. Actually that's extra optimistic. Perhaps most skyscraper office buildings, but not the "strip mall style" office buildings common in the Valley. Other commercial space (retail, warehouse, etc) I would guess very little. For example enclosed shopping malls don't have many windows and it would probably be cheaper just to tear them down. Ditto big box stores. But those vast acres of shopping malls and big box shops could be redeveloped into mixed-use developments.
  • acchow 4y ago
    > Seems to me the main constraint would be floor/window ratios Also the location of plumbing. The buildings with smaller floors can convert fine (for example, see 100 Van Ness). The ones with larger floors much harder
    • gumby 4y ago
      Good point — few people want to leave their apartment and use a communal facility! I can imagine you could easily retrofit the water supply, but the drains sound harder. Still, these projects in NYC think they can pull it off — will be interesting to see. There is a precedent: many of the lower Manhattan residences (LES, SOHO etc) were factories. I just did a quick DDG search for “commercial to residential conversion” and to my (unjustified surprise) there were a lot of links from architects and contractors. NYT article from a few months ago: https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/realestate/10posting-financial-district.html https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/10/realestate/10posting-fina...