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Typically you'll have to put in all new electrical and plumbing, because the existing office level capacity is no where near sufficient. You'll have to complete
by kenhwang 3y ago
Typically you'll have to put in all new electrical and plumbing, because the existing office level capacity is no where near sufficient. You'll have to completely redesign HVAC and ventilation as well since you can't have an entire floor be one climate and you'll need exterior ventilation for showers/cooking/laundry that aren't a consideration in an office. There might not even be enough space between floors to accommodate those things.
Then there's other code considerations like windows and fire exit distance requirements that become harder to meet once you start adding walls.
If you have to move all the floors, walls, utilities, elevators, and exits, how much of the original building are you actually leaving intact? Often times, even after doing all that, a conversion still isn't viable because there's just too much floor area and not enough windows to make any layout that isn't a 10k sqft single room studio viable.
- hedora 3y agoI’ve seen enough factory to residential conversations to say that 10,000 sq ft studios are amazing. They’re probably worth less per square foot than a bunch of smaller apartments, but they’re still worth way more than a typical N bedroom apartment. You can always build rooms out of dividers, etc to break up the space.
- leesalminen 3y agoA 10ksf studio doesn’t sound very affordable, though. How many residential tenants can afford that kind of space? Is there really a big market for that?
- belltaco 3y ago10ksf studios will reduce the cost of housing. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37524331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37524331
- JumpCrisscross 3y ago> you'll have to put in all new electrical and plumbing The solution is dorm-style housing. Shared bathrooms to reduce plumbing requirements. Waiver of window requirements for internal rooms, possibly even units. New York has a couple of these left, and they’re popular with young people first moving to the city. (Shared bathrooms. Units without windows are also popular, but they are illegal.) Unfortunately, it’s largely against code, and not for safety reasons.