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So, now where were we? Oh, right, work from home and the future of the office. Way back in January, I said I’d chat about what we’re seeing around the country on re-purposing the office space we’ve built. Well, the wait is over.
A 2022 report by the architecture, design and planning firm Gensler, which was updated in 2023, noted that only 25% of the office buildings vacated due to the pandemic and work-from-home shifts are suitable candidates for residential conversion. “Context, building form, location, floor plate size, and several other factors all play a crucial role in assessing a building’s aptness for conversion.” What does this mean? Let’s consider the various elements.
Context: This might be a crucial one. In the case of offices as part of a larger/taller building, floor height is going to be an issue. A 12-foot floor-to-ceiling space seems like a lot, but when you retrofit HVAC and plumbing needs, which are greater in residential than office space, that creates an eight-foot tall ceiling. Not so great.
Building form: This might be the variable that is awkward but comprisable. A long, flat building isn’t as efficient for multi-family, just as a ranch isn’t the most efficient single-family home to build, but you can make it work.
Location: This seems the least important because, with the housing crisis, the country is facing the ability to live in just about anywhere that seems adaptable. Sure, an office park in the middle of suburbia is not welcoming or conducive to walkable communities, but there’d certainly be parking.
Floor plate size: Ever notice that the hallway widths for residential and commercial spaces are vastly different? Well, that’s for good reason. Office buildings tend to have far fewer bathrooms as opposed to residential apartment buildings and more importantly, they have deeper and wider floor plans, and are designed to emphasize natural window lighting on the edges, but not fully within the space. Residential spaces tend to want more natural light through the full unit. It’s not as simple as just carving up offices and creating hallways for residential units.
Now, these aren’t universal conditions and we’ll certainly see conversions occur (look at the old courthouse on Second Street as an example), but it isn’t going to be as widespread as one might want. What I see as very curious is parking garages in dense urban centers becoming residential spaces, like this. With offices no longer being filled with employees, parking garages are no longer filled with cars in these areas.
One last note, apparently having too much office space isn’t new. I recently read a study that noted that there was an office boom in the early 80s and, with fluctuating need, we’ve actually had excess office square footage nationwide since then. Interesting to think about a 40-year glut.
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