5 ms·
You can't just convert office space into residential space. Completely different building codes. Just the retrofit for the plumbing makes it untenable.
by dymk 4y ago
You can't just convert office space into residential space. Completely different building codes. Just the retrofit for the plumbing makes it untenable.
- throw8383833jj 4y agoI know this will get downvoted but, I say Throw the building codes out the window. Housing people is more important than regulations. If it made a difference to your ability to get shelter, which would you rather choose: have shelter or live in a illegal tent under a bridge resting assured with the knowledge that there's a big book of rules in place.
- trentgreene 4y agoThe problem is not all codes are meaningless regulation, and some of the important ones are indeed expensive (and vice versa). If you yolo it, you get cases like the Grenfell tower fire, and a lot of people literally die.
- grepLeigh 4y agoThis is how you get housing tenements, and SF has a history of over-paying for impermanent housing solutions (like tents in a parking lot, or cots in a navigation center). Not all buildings in SF are high-rise open-plans. If you're imagining converting Salesforce tower, I see how that would seem impractical. Most commercial office space in SOMA (old warehouse buildings) can be converted into live/work lofts.
- dymk 4y agoBuilding codes were written in blood (and for much of the plumbing code, human feces and black mold).
- achenet 4y agoanyone up for a rewrite in Rust? :D
- SoftTalker 4y agoIf you're talking low-income housing, it could be closer to a dormitory setup. Common bathrooms and kitchens, etc. This used to be common in low-income urban rental property, and still is in some parts of the world. Building Codes are words on paper. They can be changed more easily than physical buildings.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoThink of most offices. Central elevator shafts and stairs and bathrooms. A massive floorplan with all the windows on the edges. How do you convert to residential? Have 5 feet by 500 feet units so everyone has light and a connection to plumbing by the elevator shaft? Residential buildings have a lot more access to natural light throughout the structure and they are plumbed entirely differently. Hvac and wiring too.
- gruez 4y ago>How do you convert to residential? Have 5 feet by 500 feet units so everyone has light and a connection to plumbing by the elevator shaft? A dorm (ie. shared bathrooms/kitchen) wouldn't have this issue.
- kjkjadksj 4y agoDorm buildings are still thinner and have more access to natural light. No matter what you get these awkward units and dystopian unlit spaces internally. In places like nyc with huge, city block width apartments, there are actually internal voids that let in natural light deeper into the structure.
- Tangurena2 4y agoThe problem with shared bathrooms & kitchens is that no single person is responsible for cleaning them and as a result they end up being messes. It can work (in theory), but in practice it ends up getting ruined by lazy jerks.
- 4y ago
- shaburn 4y agoAmbiguous blanket statement that flies in the face of ingenuity. Change the byzantine codes.
- dymk 4y agoGoogle "Chesterton's Fence".