3 ms·

This is the sentiment I hear from my circles. While remote work is great for finding top talent and all (productivity arguments aside). The commercial real esta

This is the sentiment I hear from my circles. While remote work is great for finding top talent and all (productivity arguments aside). The commercial real estate market is essentially Wile-E-Coyote running in air after running off the cliff.

echelon 3y ago
It'll just be converted to residential. Young people still want to live in cities. It's how they find people to date and things to do. All the new high rise construction in my city is now residential, and there's quite a lot of it going up. My city curiously just bought an empty high rise office building with the intent of converting it into affordable housing.
- skybrian 3y ago
  Converting modern office buildings to residential can be difficult because commercial buildings often have more interior (windowless) space and we insist (often by law) that bedrooms have windows. Sometimes it can be done, depending on the building’s shape, but “wasted” interior space can be a big financial loss, which is essentially about acknowledging that the building isn’t as useful as people expected. (Though I’m sure some use could be found for the space.) Charles Munger tried to do it differently with beds on the inside, but this is unpopular [1]. One reason that companies go for an open design is to get more natural light into the interior, which makes for a good first impression, but has other downsides like noise. (Sometimes homes don’t have enough rooms with doors either.) [1] https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/university-california-abandons-windowless-dorm-munger-hall/ https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/university-california-aban...
- rsanek 3y ago
  Often, it's not that easy. NYT had a good article on this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office-conversions.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office...

echelon 3y ago

It'll just be converted to residential. Young people still want to live in cities. It's how they find people to date and things to do. All the new high rise construction in my city is now residential, and there's quite a lot of it going up. My city curiously just bought an empty high rise office building with the intent of converting it into affordable housing.

skybrian 3y ago
Converting modern office buildings to residential can be difficult because commercial buildings often have more interior (windowless) space and we insist (often by law) that bedrooms have windows. Sometimes it can be done, depending on the building’s shape, but “wasted” interior space can be a big financial loss, which is essentially about acknowledging that the building isn’t as useful as people expected. (Though I’m sure some use could be found for the space.) Charles Munger tried to do it differently with beds on the inside, but this is unpopular [1]. One reason that companies go for an open design is to get more natural light into the interior, which makes for a good first impression, but has other downsides like noise. (Sometimes homes don’t have enough rooms with doors either.) [1] https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/university-california-abandons-windowless-dorm-munger-hall/ https://www.archpaper.com/2023/08/university-california-aban...
rsanek 3y ago
Often, it's not that easy. NYT had a good article on this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office-conversions.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office...