Unfortunately it can be extremely difficult/costly to convert an office building into livable spaces. Taller apartment buildings are basically built around their water and utility infrastructure.
Instead of having a couple bathrooms per floor, you’re going to have to install at least one for every tenant. The pumps that force the water to the top of the office building would have to be swapped for a much larger one that could handle the increase in volume.
You’ve described how much of the world works. It’s almost as if the US has been living in an economic bubble for a long time and suburbs were never the answer.
No, nowhere in the world do they regularly convert sky scraping office buildings into housing.
I wasn’t saying it’s costly or hard to build a tall residential building, just that the way the office and residential building are built are fundamentally different.
Pretty sure they just mean that it’s not as easy as just converting former office buildings into livable space, and that developers are not going to want to pay the cost when it can be cheaper to demolish the building and build a brand new apartment building vs renovating the old office building. IMO, fuck what developers think about spending the upfront cost, we need housing 20 years ago now and the suburbs suck; but pointing it out to capitalists isn’t gonna get it done.
Pretty sure they just mean that it’s not as easy as just converting former office buildings into livable space, and that developers are not going to want to pay the cost when it can be cheaper to demolish the building and build a brand new apartment building vs renovating the old office building.
Not only is it more expensive, but a lot of the time it’s just not possible. Why would a developer add enough room in the utility columns to add enough extra space for enough piping to accommodate several times it’s original projected water consumption?
Add in local ordinance such as the increased fire protections required for multi family homes and you’ll begin to see some of the inherent problems people like to breeze over.
There’s quite a lot of interest - and action- inside the industry surrounding conversions. I’m on the structural side and have probably seen 3-4 articles in trade rags over the past quarter about strategies and opportunities in conversions. IT may not be feasible everywhere it for every budding, but the industry (including suppliers and designers) are interested enough that it’s part of the discussion on a regular basis.
Oh, I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of talk about it. It’s one of those Hail Mary ideas that would be easy to market if someone could make it profitable .
I could see it happen for older, not so tall buildings. I just have a hard time seeing someone turn office space in a glass sky scraper into up to code housing. Even ignoring the inherent engineering problems, just figuring out the fire safety for something like that would be maddening.
Why would the volume of water be much greater? Aren’t those bathrooms made for an office full of people to use, shouldn’t the amount of water going through the pipes be similar?
Unfortunately it can be extremely difficult/costly to convert an office building into livable spaces. Taller apartment buildings are basically built around their water and utility infrastructure.
Instead of having a couple bathrooms per floor, you’re going to have to install at least one for every tenant. The pumps that force the water to the top of the office building would have to be swapped for a much larger one that could handle the increase in volume.
You’ve described how much of the world works. It’s almost as if the US has been living in an economic bubble for a long time and suburbs were never the answer.
No, nowhere in the world do they regularly convert sky scraping office buildings into housing.
I wasn’t saying it’s costly or hard to build a tall residential building, just that the way the office and residential building are built are fundamentally different.
Shared bathrooms are often used.
Pretty sure they just mean that it’s not as easy as just converting former office buildings into livable space, and that developers are not going to want to pay the cost when it can be cheaper to demolish the building and build a brand new apartment building vs renovating the old office building. IMO, fuck what developers think about spending the upfront cost, we need housing 20 years ago now and the suburbs suck; but pointing it out to capitalists isn’t gonna get it done.
Not only is it more expensive, but a lot of the time it’s just not possible. Why would a developer add enough room in the utility columns to add enough extra space for enough piping to accommodate several times it’s original projected water consumption?
Add in local ordinance such as the increased fire protections required for multi family homes and you’ll begin to see some of the inherent problems people like to breeze over.
Developers will always waste resources and harm the environment for money. It’s their job.
There’s quite a lot of interest - and action- inside the industry surrounding conversions. I’m on the structural side and have probably seen 3-4 articles in trade rags over the past quarter about strategies and opportunities in conversions. IT may not be feasible everywhere it for every budding, but the industry (including suppliers and designers) are interested enough that it’s part of the discussion on a regular basis.
Oh, I’m sure there’s a whole bunch of talk about it. It’s one of those Hail Mary ideas that would be easy to market if someone could make it profitable .
I could see it happen for older, not so tall buildings. I just have a hard time seeing someone turn office space in a glass sky scraper into up to code housing. Even ignoring the inherent engineering problems, just figuring out the fire safety for something like that would be maddening.
Not to mention that some jurisdictions require windows in every bedroom, so you end up with some very weird layouts.
That’s for houses. You’re not expected to egress through the window when you live on the 20th floor.
Why would the volume of water be much greater? Aren’t those bathrooms made for an office full of people to use, shouldn’t the amount of water going through the pipes be similar?
No
Have you ever seen 100 showers going at the same time in an office building? Because that happens every 07:00 in an apartment building.
People in offices are not showering and running dishwashers three times a day.