The scourge of the modern city, particularly in America, is the commute. Too many workers who can't afford to live downtown instead travel from the suburbs, contributing to congestion, pollution, and high energy consumption. Even those who can afford it can't find a place to live inside city limits. But that's changing.
The lack of living space in cities has been a problem for decades. The office complex boom in the 1980s gave us a huge number of office buildings that are now 40 years old. Companies were already weighing the costs of remodeling or moving when the pandemic hit. Employees switched to working from home, and companies realized they don't really need all that office space, which is a huge expense even when fully in use. What to do with the suddenly skyrocketing inventory of unused downtown real estate? Convert it into housing!
Washington, DC, is leading the way in converting offices to apartments, with 1,091 new units, but many cities are getting into the scheme. Bringing more people into a city to live can ease traffic, revitalize mass transit systems, and contribute to mixed-use neighborhoods, which raises the quality of life for city dwellers. The drawback in office conversion so far is that most are converted to expensive luxury apartments, but there is a push to use offices for affordable housing. That would serve people who would benefit the most from being close to city services, such as mass transit. Read about the trend in office conversion at BBC.
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