6 ms·

States like California want to make it easier to convert offices into housing

31 points by bilsbie 4y ago

11235813213455 4y ago
why don't we convert offices into dorm rooms during the night? There's so much unused room
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  This works better as work from home. If the offices would be meant as dorms for people who don't use the offices during the day then theft, misuse, or simple breakage becomes a problem. Not to mention the time and effort it would take each day to convert to and from. And what if some office worker has to pull a sudden all-nighter? The dormer just doesn't get a bed that night? What about their rental contract?
  - 11235813213455 4y ago
    good points, it's also not efficient that a worker split his time into 2 different places exclusively reserved for himself. Maybe only some parts of offices could be open to "night rental", there would be closed doors, lockers or more generic offices like in school where you don't leave all your stuff
WalterBright 4y ago
> If you buy a hotel and convert it to studio apartments, that’s pretty easy, because every room already has plumbing. But when you buy a commercial building, your plumbing is in the middle of the building Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? After all, dormitories do that. The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? It is problematic, yes. > After all, dormitories do that The much-higher-than-surrounding-communities rates of sexual assaults on college campuses are concentrated in the dorms, so “dormitories do it” is maybe not a very good argument that it is a good idea for a broader population. > The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is. 1:1 bathrooms to residential units are going to make you need to extend the plumbing considerably, at which point what is the point of not doing it to the individual units? Also, bathrooms aren’t the only reason habitable units need plumbing, kitchens need it, too.
  - WalterBright 4y ago
    "Women only" floors could be an option. I know that shared bathrooms and kitchens would be less desirable. But if that meant paying half the rent? It's not for everyone, sure, but I'm also sure it would be suitable for a lot of people. I would have preferred a single in college when I lived in a dorm, but the bathroom and kitchen down the hall wasn't a problem for me.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      > “Women only” floors could be an option. So could government support for the cost of conversions which just don’t leave this issue in place; women aren’t the only population for which a remote bathroom and kitchen are problematic.
      - vuln 4y ago
        What’s the other part of the population and how are they effected?
        fortissimohn 4y ago
scotuswroteus 4y ago
I'm tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they "want" to do. Judge political figures by the years they put in behind the scenes to broker deals, build coalitions, and earn votes. It's easy to tell the press your ideals.
- dragonwriter 4y ago
  > I’m tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they “want” to do. “Want” here is not an accurate description of the article’s content, the original article doesn’t use it in the headline (which says “are trying to”) and the content addresses concrete measures, mostly that are already in place though one is still moving through the legislative process. EDIT: replaced “an invention of the HN submitter” with “not an accurate description of the article’s content”, as another comment points out it came from the URL.
  - scotuswroteus 4y ago
    Point taken. And yet, proposing concrete measures still shouldn't generate press. The question is what is the bill's sponsor doing to generate a majority to pass it.
    - dragonwriter 4y ago
      Again, there is only one active proposal discussed, most of the government actions in the article are recently adopted and already in place. (Or in one case, that represents a leading edge model, adopted in 1999 and already in place.)
  - anonymouskimmer 4y ago
    It's not an invention of the submitter, it's the article title in the HTML header, which differs from the article title visible on the webpage.
anonymouskimmer 4y ago
> office conversions to other uses have become increasingly attractive options for older, less competitive buildings Well lets hope the rebar-enforced concrete is well inspected. We don't want something like the Surfside condo collapse happening during an earthquake. https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078 https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-conc... > their life span is more like 50-100 years, and sometimes less. Building codes and policies generally require buildings to survive for several decades, but deterioration can begin in as little as 10 years.
egberts1 4y ago
Good luck upgrading sewer lines and water lines and utility lines to capacity.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  This is done commonly. It's not trivial, not necessarily easy or cheap, but it's not impossible, and is even common.
HALtheWise 4y ago
Does anyone know of people or companies trying to work on technical solutions to make it easier to do this sort of conversion? For example, the problem of centralized plumbing seems like it could be ameliorated significantly with a small-scale pumped sewage system, and difficulties with metering power and water seem similarly solvable with a product designed for this application.
- iancmceachern 4y ago
  All the solutions exist already. Maceration pump for the sewage, simple enough to run pex and a new meter for fresh water, same for electric. I live in a dual use commercial/residential apartment, modern office spaces often have kitchens and bathrooms right in the office, not down the hall, so many spaces really don't need much to change over to residential. I think most of the people complaining focus on the corner cases, the extreme examples. Most commercial class A office buildings built ir renovated in the last 20 years could be changed over pretty easily, stuff older than that was needing significant renovation soon anyway.

31 points by bilsbie 4y ago

11235813213455 4y ago

why don't we convert offices into dorm rooms during the night? There's so much unused room

anonymouskimmer 4y ago
This works better as work from home. If the offices would be meant as dorms for people who don't use the offices during the day then theft, misuse, or simple breakage becomes a problem. Not to mention the time and effort it would take each day to convert to and from. And what if some office worker has to pull a sudden all-nighter? The dormer just doesn't get a bed that night? What about their rental contract?
- 11235813213455 4y ago
  good points, it's also not efficient that a worker split his time into 2 different places exclusively reserved for himself. Maybe only some parts of offices could be open to "night rental", there would be closed doors, lockers or more generic offices like in school where you don't leave all your stuff

WalterBright 4y ago

> If you buy a hotel and convert it to studio apartments, that’s pretty easy, because every room already has plumbing. But when you buy a commercial building, your plumbing is in the middle of the building Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? After all, dormitories do that. The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dragonwriter 4y ago
> Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? It is problematic, yes. > After all, dormitories do that The much-higher-than-surrounding-communities rates of sexual assaults on college campuses are concentrated in the dorms, so “dormitories do it” is maybe not a very good argument that it is a good idea for a broader population. > The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is. 1:1 bathrooms to residential units are going to make you need to extend the plumbing considerably, at which point what is the point of not doing it to the individual units? Also, bathrooms aren’t the only reason habitable units need plumbing, kitchens need it, too.
- WalterBright 4y ago
  "Women only" floors could be an option. I know that shared bathrooms and kitchens would be less desirable. But if that meant paying half the rent? It's not for everyone, sure, but I'm also sure it would be suitable for a lot of people. I would have preferred a single in college when I lived in a dorm, but the bathroom and kitchen down the hall wasn't a problem for me.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    > “Women only” floors could be an option. So could government support for the cost of conversions which just don’t leave this issue in place; women aren’t the only population for which a remote bathroom and kitchen are problematic.
    - vuln 4y ago
      What’s the other part of the population and how are they effected?
      - fortissimohn 4y ago

scotuswroteus 4y ago

I'm tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they "want" to do. Judge political figures by the years they put in behind the scenes to broker deals, build coalitions, and earn votes. It's easy to tell the press your ideals.

dragonwriter 4y ago
> I’m tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they “want” to do. “Want” here is not an accurate description of the article’s content, the original article doesn’t use it in the headline (which says “are trying to”) and the content addresses concrete measures, mostly that are already in place though one is still moving through the legislative process. EDIT: replaced “an invention of the HN submitter” with “not an accurate description of the article’s content”, as another comment points out it came from the URL.
- scotuswroteus 4y ago
  Point taken. And yet, proposing concrete measures still shouldn't generate press. The question is what is the bill's sponsor doing to generate a majority to pass it.
  - dragonwriter 4y ago
    Again, there is only one active proposal discussed, most of the government actions in the article are recently adopted and already in place. (Or in one case, that represents a leading edge model, adopted in 1999 and already in place.)
- anonymouskimmer 4y ago
  It's not an invention of the submitter, it's the article title in the HTML header, which differs from the article title visible on the webpage.

anonymouskimmer 4y ago

> office conversions to other uses have become increasingly attractive options for older, less competitive buildings Well lets hope the rebar-enforced concrete is well inspected. We don't want something like the Surfside condo collapse happening during an earthquake. https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-concrete-56078 https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-conc... > their life span is more like 50-100 years, and sometimes less. Building codes and policies generally require buildings to survive for several decades, but deterioration can begin in as little as 10 years.

egberts1 4y ago

Good luck upgrading sewer lines and water lines and utility lines to capacity.

iancmceachern 4y ago
This is done commonly. It's not trivial, not necessarily easy or cheap, but it's not impossible, and is even common.

HALtheWise 4y ago

Does anyone know of people or companies trying to work on technical solutions to make it easier to do this sort of conversion? For example, the problem of centralized plumbing seems like it could be ameliorated significantly with a small-scale pumped sewage system, and difficulties with metering power and water seem similarly solvable with a product designed for this application.

iancmceachern 4y ago
All the solutions exist already. Maceration pump for the sewage, simple enough to run pex and a new meter for fresh water, same for electric. I live in a dual use commercial/residential apartment, modern office spaces often have kitchens and bathrooms right in the office, not down the hall, so many spaces really don't need much to change over to residential. I think most of the people complaining focus on the corner cases, the extreme examples. Most commercial class A office buildings built ir renovated in the last 20 years could be changed over pretty easily, stuff older than that was needing significant renovation soon anyway.