States like California want to make it easier to convert offices into housing

https://www.marketplace.org/2023/03/13/converting-office-space-to-apartment-buildings-is-hard-states-like-california-are-trying-to-change-that/

by bilsbie • 3 years ago

31 34 3 years ago

marketplace.org

112358132134552• 3 years ago

why don't we convert offices into dorm rooms during the night? There's so much unused room

anonymouskimmer5• 3 years ago

This works better as work from home.

If the offices would be meant as dorms for people who don't use the offices during the day then theft, misuse, or simple breakage becomes a problem. Not to mention the time and effort it would take each day to convert to and from. And what if some office worker has to pull a sudden all-nighter? The dormer just doesn't get a bed that night? What about their rental contract?

112358132134552• 3 years ago

good points, it's also not efficient that a worker split his time into 2 different places exclusively reserved for himself. Maybe only some parts of offices could be open to "night rental", there would be closed doors, lockers or more generic offices like in school where you don't leave all your stuff

WalterBright4• 3 years ago

If you buy a hotel and convert it to studio apartments, that’s pretty easy, because every room already has plumbing. But when you buy a commercial building, your plumbing is in the middle of the building

Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"? After all, dormitories do that. The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is.

dragonwriter4• 3 years ago

Is it so unthinkable to have bathrooms "down the hall"?

It is problematic, yes.

After all, dormitories do that

The much-higher-than-surrounding-communities rates of sexual assaults on college campuses are concentrated in the dorms, so “dormitories do it” is maybe not a very good argument that it is a good idea for a broader population.

The bathrooms don't even have to be shared, they're just down the hall where the plumbing is.

1:1 bathrooms to residential units are going to make you need to extend the plumbing considerably, at which point what is the point of not doing it to the individual units? Also, bathrooms aren’t the only reason habitable units need plumbing, kitchens need it, too.

WalterBright4• 3 years ago

"Women only" floors could be an option.

I know that shared bathrooms and kitchens would be less desirable. But if that meant paying half the rent? It's not for everyone, sure, but I'm also sure it would be suitable for a lot of people.

I would have preferred a single in college when I lived in a dorm, but the bathroom and kitchen down the hall wasn't a problem for me.

MandieD• 3 years ago

Several furnished, individually-rented bedrooms sharing a common kitchen and bathrooms are called SRO’s, or “single room occupancy” buildings meant for adults living alone.

Unfortunately, that kind of housing has been zoned out of existence in most of the US.

WalterBright4• 3 years ago

I know it's been zoned out of existence. It's time to revisit that.

adrianmonk• 3 years ago

It's not unthinkable, but it's also just an example of one of the many things that need to be done to adapt.

You'll need to install separate electric service to each unit unless you want to share an electric bill with your neighbors.

You'll need separate HVAC unless you want to have one common thermostat and keep your home at the same temperature as everyone else's.

You'll need walls, and they really ought to be built to block some sound. You need walls that separate units, and each unit also needs internal walls since you probably want things like bedroom closets which office buildings don't usually have.

You're going to want a kitchen with cabinetry, appliances, and plumbing for sink and dishwasher.

Since you're building all that, you can just add plumbing in while you're doing it, either inside those walls you're building or along the ceiling.

Ancalagon• 3 years ago

Oh god don’t give the landlord a reason to make apartment living more dystopian than it is already

WalterBright4• 3 years ago

Nobody is going to make you live where you don't wanna live.

seanmcdirmid2• 3 years ago

In Japan, its not uncommon to not have any plumbing at all in your housing, or perhaps just a shared toilet and no shower. In a traditional Beijing hutong, they have bath houses and public bathrooms to make up for the lack of plumbing. Not a fun life, but it can be worked around.

scotuswroteus2• 3 years ago

I'm tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they "want" to do. Judge political figures by the years they put in behind the scenes to broker deals, build coalitions, and earn votes. It's easy to tell the press your ideals.

dragonwriter4• 3 years ago

I’m tired of politicians earning headlines simply by expressing what they “want” to do.

“Want” here is not an accurate description of the article’s content, the original article doesn’t use it in the headline (which says “are trying to”) and the content addresses concrete measures, mostly that are already in place though one is still moving through the legislative process.

EDIT: replaced “an invention of the HN submitter” with “not an accurate description of the article’s content”, as another comment points out it came from the URL.

scotuswroteus2• 3 years ago

Point taken.

And yet, proposing concrete measures still shouldn't generate press. The question is what is the bill's sponsor doing to generate a majority to pass it.

anonymouskimmer5• 3 years ago

It's not an invention of the submitter, it's the article title in the HTML header, which differs from the article title visible on the webpage.

anonymouskimmer5• 3 years ago

office conversions to other uses have become increasingly attractive options for older, less competitive buildings

Well lets hope the rebar-enforced concrete is well inspected. We don't want something like the Surfside condo collapse happening during an earthquake.

https://theconversation.com/the-problem-with-reinforced-conc...

their life span is more like 50-100 years, and sometimes less. Building codes and policies generally require buildings to survive for several decades, but deterioration can begin in as little as 10 years.

egberts1• 3 years ago

Good luck upgrading sewer lines and water lines and utility lines to capacity.

iancmceachern2• 3 years ago

This is done commonly. It's not trivial, not necessarily easy or cheap, but it's not impossible, and is even common.

HALtheWise• 3 years ago

Does anyone know of people or companies trying to work on technical solutions to make it easier to do this sort of conversion? For example, the problem of centralized plumbing seems like it could be ameliorated significantly with a small-scale pumped sewage system, and difficulties with metering power and water seem similarly solvable with a product designed for this application.

iancmceachern2• 3 years ago

All the solutions exist already. Maceration pump for the sewage, simple enough to run pex and a new meter for fresh water, same for electric.

I live in a dual use commercial/residential apartment, modern office spaces often have kitchens and bathrooms right in the office, not down the hall, so many spaces really don't need much to change over to residential.

I think most of the people complaining focus on the corner cases, the extreme examples. Most commercial class A office buildings built ir renovated in the last 20 years could be changed over pretty easily, stuff older than that was needing significant renovation soon anyway.

States like California want to make it easier to convert offices into housing

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