Cities across the US are struggling to fill their office spaces. Major cities like Washington DC, Boston, and San Francisco have increasingly vacant downtowns, while the urban centers of small Rust Belt cities struggle to survive altogether. This trend is consistent beyond the US, with over three-quarters of Europe’s office buildings at risk of obsolescence by the decade’s end. The cause of this, in most cases, is simple: an oversupply of offices and a shift towards remote work. These vacant buildings can trigger a negative domino effect of economic and social challenges for cities, and their surplus, coupled with a housing shortage, has sparked discussions among cities and architects about the impending necessity to transform offices into housing.
Adapting office spaces into housing might seem straightforward, but it comes with its share of challenges, spanning zoning, technical, and financial complexities. Zoning regulations and codes hinder flexibility in program usage and the exploration of new housing types. There are also technical hurdles related to HVAC, plumbing, and natural daylight access, which makes some office buildings better candidates than others. Moreover, financial hurdles loom large, with all-time high mortgage rates and the still high price of office buildings.
As daunting as all of those challenges might seem, historically, the concept is not new. During the 1990s, both NYC and Los Angeles passed city ordinances to encourage the adaptation of empty office buildings to housing. In NYC, due to the ’90s recession and the 9/11 attacks, the city passed zoning changes, tax incentives, and government bonds to finance developers willing to repurpose unused office buildings. These helped convert about 20 million square feet of the lower Manhattan financial district into 17,000 homes. LA also saw a similar wave of conversions after the city passed an adaptive reuse ordinance in 1999, which resulted in about 15,000 housing units.
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Our Cities Aren’t Dead Yet!Currently, in the US, similar changes and incentives are happening at the federal and city levels to offset the costs and challenges related to these conversions. Most recently, in October of this year, the Biden-Harris administration announced actions to support the conversion of high-vacancy commercial buildings to affordable residential use. These actions include new financing, technical assistance, and the sale of federal properties. At the local level, cities are also proposing incentives. Boston is offering property tax breaks to developers, while Portland, Oregon, is waiving fees and providing improvement standard exceptions.
In response to these discussions, architects are unveiling imaginative visions for what these transformations could look like. Brooks Scarpa recently reimagined the Robert C. Weaver building in DC for the BRUTAL DC design exhibition. Their vision includes 300 units of housing, reduced office space, and community amenities. They addressed challenges like natural daylighting and HVAC location by replacing the outdated core with a shared central courtyard garden. Their design allocates nearly 45% of the space for affordable housing, promoting shared living options and showcasing the potential for repurposing large office buildings into new housing models.
There is currently momentum in cities in the US to develop incentives to convert offices into housing. It is not in vain; urban centers need these changes to survive. The investments in reshaping these urban landscapes could pave the way for a new wave of office-to-housing transformations, holding vast potential for innovative housing solutions. Hopefully, these financial incentives and zoning changes will grant developers and architects enough freedom and opportunity to innovate and explore new models for social housing, creating more equitable and human-centered downtowns.
