Bringing back communities through office-to-residential conversion

The rise in New York office-to-residential conversions presents a timely opportunity for developers, architects and building owners amid the urgent need for more housing stock.
However, making the case for adaptive reuse projects goes far beyond just a design challenge for architects or an appealing route for owners of vacant offices.

I’ve written about how the ‘City of Yes’ reforms might boost the number of these projects across the city, and how converting older buildings often reveals a whole host of structural challenges that need to be overcome. However, one of the key reasons why an increase in office-to-residential is vital for the city, and one that can easily be overlooked, is the impact it could have on communities.

Repeating the past

The office-to-residential boom somewhat signals a return to the New York of 150 years ago, before elevated trains connected the suburbs to the city and when residential and business districts weren’t very far apart. People who worked in the financial district typically lived downtown – Washington Square was an easy walk or carriage trip away. Meanwhile, the Upper East Side was home to a lot of breweries with tenements built across the street, making homes and workplaces only a block apart.

With the arrival of decent mass transit, so began the segregation of residential and business districts, which only got more and more segregated over the years. So, when the city made a concerted effort to get people to live downtown starting in the 70s, there was barely anyone living south of Chambers Street. This makes the recent push towards residential conversion the latest step in the long-standing effort to try and reverse this segregation, to create better neighborhoods, reduce crowding and decrease the need for mass transit.

Lowering the pressure on purely residential-use districts might then create, in theory, a chain of positive effects.

A more sustainable direction

In recent years, housing in many cities has only become more affordable because people are moving further and further out, encouraging more exurban development that can destroy rural areas. For New York, if office-to-residential conversions are able to address the city’s 1.4% vacancy rate while lowering housing prices downtown, then people won’t have to keep moving further and further from the center to find homes. A rise in office-to-residential should also impact smaller neighborhoods, many of which are not as well served by mass transit as they used to be. While the obvious answer would be to improve transportation links, having more affordable homes downtown in former office buildings should give people an option to live closer to where they work.

The other issue is to do with gentrification. These neighborhoods have historically been lower income, but in recent years have seen developers and investors put up an increasing number of luxury apartments to attract middle-income earners, unfortunately pricing out longtime, working-class residents. The southern end of the South Bronx- Mott Haven and Port Morris – is an interesting case study: a former industrial and low-income housing area, it has seen the demolition of industrial buildings and development of expensive new high-rise buildings. As a result, you have families at risk of being forced out to make way for more new construction.

With office-to-residential conversions creating new apartments in Manhattan, this should hopefully attract wealthier New Yorkers to live more centrally and slow the gentrification of the smaller neighborhoods.

Enabling more office-to-residential conversions

Bringing more housing back to Manhattan through adaptive reuse projects could trigger a further resurgence in downtown communities and help ease the pressure on the city’s housing market. The challenge will lie in completing these projects on time and on budget to meet demand and make a tangible impact – something a structural engineering firm like Old Structures can help to ensure.

At Old Structures, we bring expertise in the way buildings used to be made, helping developers and architects solve the complex challenges of converting older offices and bring their vision to life. We provide a wealth of understanding to help tackle the nuances of your project, from feasibility study to completion, whether the building was built in the 60s or even earlier.

If you’re considering an office-to-residential conversion or just want to find out more, we’d love to discuss our approach with you. Get in touch.