{"id":269612,"date":"2021-07-09T10:30:58","date_gmt":"2021-07-09T14:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/bad-office-buildings-make-good-residential-spaces\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T23:37:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T03:37:10","slug":"bad-office-buildings-make-good-residential-spaces","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2021\/07\/bad-office-buildings-make-good-residential-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad office buildings make good residential spaces"},"content":{"rendered":"

Going into the pandemic, the city of Calgary was already facing an existential crisis. The office vacancy\u00a0rate had risen\u00a0to 24 per cent\u00a0due\u00a0to plunging oil prices.\u00a0A year on, and\u00a0the vacancy\u00a0rate\u00a0is hovering around\u00a032 per cent. To put that into perspective, the corporate office vacancy rate is\u00a0double\u00a0that of Detroit\u2019s when it\u00a0declared bankruptcy<\/a> in 2013. Calgary now has 12 million square feet of vacant office space on the market.<\/p>\n

Aging\u00a0office buildings are now sitting empty as tenants choose more modern buildings, and not just in Calgary.\u00a0Many Canadian cities went through a building boom in the late \u201960s and \u201970s, and those buildings are now at the end of their life, requiring significant investment to bring them up to modern standards.\u00a0As a principal and studio director at Gensler, I\u2019ve heard from clients coast to coast\u00a0that\u00a0in order to\u00a0future-proof older\u00a0buildings so that they can continue to be useful,\u00a0they\u2019ll\u00a0need to enhance air\u00a0filtration, and add more indoor and outdoor space for physical\u00a0distancing\u00a0for the day when we\u00a0are no longer\u00a0working remotely.\u00a0Costly elevator and energy efficiency improvements also need to be considered.<\/p>\n

But the pandemic has revealed two\u00a0fundamental truths:\u00a0the way\u00a0we\u2019ll\u00a0use our offices in the future is shifting, and\u00a0our downtown business districts\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0offer a diversity of experiences.\u00a0For example, a 2016 study<\/a> by the University of Alberta found that Edmonton\u2019s downtown is something of a \u201cgrocery desert.\u201d In order to have a truly walkable, dense urban environment in a North American city, it\u2019s advisable to have a grocery store within 500 metres of a residential building. This lack of a diverse mix results in city centres that are 9 to 5 instead of 24\/7.<\/p>\n

The shift to more modern and sustainable Class A buildings \u2013 the most prestigious buildings with above-average rents for the area, quality standard finishes, state-of-the-art systems and a definite market presence \u2013 was happening even before the pandemic struck. In Toronto, more than\u00a010-million-square feet\u00a0of\u00a0brand-new\u00a0office space are set to come on stream over the next few years.<\/p>\n

The question then becomes what should be done with poorly performing older office buildings? As an exploratory exercise, we studied 28 buildings in Calgary. Gensler looked at which buildings would make good candidates for conversion, and whether there were enough buildings in the market that would qualify as candidates. We created a scorecard of all the factors that make for a good residential building: how deep the floor plate is (meaning how much of the leasable space gets natural light), the ceiling heights, the number of elevators, neighbourhood context, access to transit and availability of parking.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A Gensler rendering showing what\u2019s possible in a conversion to residential. A sun-filled space. Source: Gensler.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of the buildings we assessed, we found 10 to 12 that were\u00a0really solid\u00a0candidates. If all 12 were to be converted, that would\u00a0create space for\u00a0approximately 4,000\u00a0people\u00a0to start calling\u00a0downtown\u00a0home\u00a0with an\u00a0additional\u00a02,000 units on the market.<\/p>\n

In Calgary,\u00a0the buildings were all clustered in the western part of the city. We believe this is a positive because if\u00a0a number of\u00a0nearby buildings are converted from office to residential use simultaneously, it creates a positive downstream\u00a0effect on the neighbourhood. Services spring up to support residents, and it suddenly makes sense for city councils to invest in parks,\u00a0libraries\u00a0and improved transit. If the buildings were spread out, there\u00a0wouldn\u2019t\u00a0be the same level of impact over a relatively\u00a0short period\u00a0of time.<\/p>\n

How hard is this to do?\u00a0Perhaps counterintuitively, we found that the worse the office\u00a0building the better candidate it is for conversion to residential. Class C buildings \u2013 those offering rents below the market average \u2013 typically have 11-foot floor-to-floor heights (eight feet or seven feet six inches clear once you factor in the ducts and\u00a0cabling\u00a0that run through). This creates more generous ceiling heights than many new-build residential towers,\u00a0allowing for lots of light and spacious-feeling apartments.<\/p>\n

Beyond the challenge of adapting older buildings lies the risk inherent in such a move.\u00a0In order to incentivize asset holders\u00a0and build consensus within and between the public and private sectors, we did two things:\u00a0conducted research into\u00a0other cities\u00a0that had\u00a0made similar moves\u00a0and researched what the city councils\u00a0had done to\u00a0stimulate change.<\/p>\n

Our partners at Calgary Economic Development\u00a0reviewed\u00a0tax incentives, credits and other economic levers that\u00a0cities have at their disposal.\u00a0We also wanted to find other\u00a0places\u00a0that had successfully undertaken a transformation of this scale. The two\u00a0stand-out success stories\u00a0were Detroit and Kansas City.<\/p>\n

In the former, a significant\u00a0catalyst for change\u00a0was the Shinola Hotel<\/a>.\u00a0After transforming two older buildings and three new ones into a unified hospitality anchor in the\u00a0neighbourhood, the project led to the arrival of shops, caf\u00e9s and restaurants, which have sprung up around the\u00a0hotel.\u00a0The hotel \u2013 a collaboration between Bedrock, Detroit\u2019s largest real estate company,\u00a0and Shinola, the Detroit-based watch and leather goods manufacturer \u2013 anchors a larger development on the block that includes a coffee shop, cosmetics store, florist and Italian restaurant and from its inception was conceived to be an ambassador for the city for out-of-towners and a living room of sorts for Detroiters. Bedrock has bought, renovated and reopened over 100 historical buildings in the heart of the city. Today, the downtown is flourishing, handsome and safe for travellers to wander about, day or night.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Shinola Hotel in Detroit, 2019. \u201cDetroit” by vasta is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The neighbourhood around the Shinola Hotel. Credit: Shinola Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"<\/a>
The interior of the Shinola Hotel. Credit: Shinola Hotel.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kansas City offers a similar blueprint. Block by block, the central business district has transformed from commercial to residential. Activity is humming in its downtown, where redevelopers are returning life to abandoned office space. By 2016, the city had converted 11 buildings from under-performing office space, with a dozen more underway. Most of the conversions are in multi-floor towers abandoned by businesses that chose newer buildings in the suburbs over offices in the city\u2019s core. The buildings that were deemed obsolete for offices are sturdy enough for reuse. Many of the reimagined buildings include ground-floor retail and, occasionally, offices on lower floors. A couple of building plans, such as one for the 12-story Brookfield Building at 101 W. 11th St., now a fun and informal hotel, intend to increase the number of hospitality options in the city. But most definitely, the changes in both cities rely on living, not working, for resuscitation.<\/p>\n

Adaptive reuse also makes sense when viewed through a sustainability lens. With the building and construction industry responsible for a significant amount of carbon emissions, reusing our buildings impacts the triple bottom line \u2013 people, plant and profit.<\/p>\n

As stated in Gensler\u2019s Climate Action by Design<\/a>,\u00a0by\u00a0renovating existing buildings\u00a0and repurposing spaces and materials, developers can decrease the amount of carbon associated with new materials, and they can reduce the\u00a0amount\u00a0of debris and waste going into landfills. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency<\/a>, deconstruction rather than demolition of a building can save 90 per cent of a building\u2019s materials.<\/p>\n

Adaptive reuse is also much more cost-effective than building new. Demolition and new building costs can be\u00a0side-stepped and, as is now the case in Calgary, developers can frequently access\u00a0municipal incentives.<\/p>\n

Today, Calgary faces\u00a0tough\u00a0challenges \u2013 too many empty office towers, an eroding tax base and not enough people living and working downtown.\u00a0For many Calgarians, the adaptive reuse revolution can\u2019t happen soon\u00a0enough.<\/p>\n

This article is part of the\u00a0Reshaping Canada\u2019s Cities After the Pandemic Shockwave<\/a>\u00a0special feature.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Going into the pandemic, the city of Calgary was already facing an existential crisis. The office vacancy\u00a0rate had risen\u00a0to 24 per cent\u00a0due\u00a0to plunging oil prices.\u00a0A year on, and\u00a0the vacancy\u00a0rate\u00a0is hovering around\u00a032 per cent. To put that into perspective, the corporate office vacancy rate is\u00a0double\u00a0that of Detroit\u2019s when it\u00a0declared bankruptcy in 2013. Calgary now has 12 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":244039,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false},"categories":[9387,9361,9372],"tags":[8602,9193],"article-status":[],"irpp-category":[4245,4261],"section":[],"irpp-tag":[7093],"class_list":["post-269612","issues","type-issues","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elaboration-de-politiques","category-environnement","category-recent-stories-fr","tag-real-estate-fr","tag-villes","irpp-category-economie","irpp-category-environnement","irpp-tag-villes"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"yoast_head":"\nBad office buildings make good residential spaces<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2021\/07\/bad-office-buildings-make-good-residential-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bad office buildings make good residential spaces\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Going into the pandemic, the city of Calgary was already facing an existential crisis. The office vacancy\u00a0rate had risen\u00a0to 24 per cent\u00a0due\u00a0to plunging oil prices.\u00a0A year on, and\u00a0the vacancy\u00a0rate\u00a0is hovering around\u00a032 per cent. To put that into perspective, the corporate office vacancy rate is\u00a0double\u00a0that of Detroit\u2019s when it\u00a0declared bankruptcy in 2013. 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