Now-Empty Office Spaces are Full of Potential
By Olivia Merritt, Undergraduate at North Carolina State University
As we pass the one year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic we are reminded that hotels, restaurants, and offices are much emptier than they were a year ago. In 2020, hotel occupancy averages were at a little less than half capacity and restaurants adapted to takeout and lower capacity seating. Additionally, many companies switched to remote work and plan to continue complete or hybrid work from home plans even after vaccine distribution is complete. All of these changes lead to empty spaces which motivates the question: what should be done with all of this underutilized real estate?
People are resilient, and business owners are finding innovative ways to get a profit from temporarily obsolete space. One restaurant and hotel in Detroit decided to be creative with their vacant hotel rooms: turn them into private dining rooms. Soon, there was a long waiting list for people who wanted to get out of their houses and enjoy a fine-dining experience in a private setting. In Fayetteville and Durham last April, hotels were being used to house homeless people and people who had mild cases of Covid and needed to quarantine away from their families. One empty office building has even been converted into a school in San Francisco. Not only is this environmentally conscious, but it allows upcoming schools to have space without buying real estate and building from scratch. This is a primary barrier for many startup schools.
Using now-obsolete office spaces for another function, like a school, eliminates the need to use raw materials to build a new building. Retrofitting an empty space into a useful area aligns with the second principle of circular economy: maintaining products so that they remain useful. Since so many companies are moving to remote work, the empty office spaces should be adapted to uses that require in-person activities, such as schools. Not only is this environmentally conscious, but it allows upcoming schools to have space without buying real estate and building from scratch.
An office space that has been converted into a schoolroom by architect Danish Kurani.
Repurposing old real estate has been done many times in the past. We need look no further than downtown Raleigh’s vibrant Warehouse District to provide an example. The district was rebuilt from the shell of abandoned industrial warehouses beginning in the 1970s. Over the years the area has grown into a hub for arts, entertainment, and fine dining with many clubs and museums emerging from the vestigial remnants of the mid 20th century Raleigh.
Another use for empty office space is to convert it into apartments. New York City has provided tax breaks for converting unused commercial buildings into residential space since the 1990s, and the trend has taken hold: In the 2010s the most common spaces to be retrofitted into rentals have been office buildings.
There are some unintended consequences to converting offices into residential spaces. Economically, it is cheaper to make office buildings into manufacturing spaces, schools, or even farms instead of housing. In Britain for example, residents living in converted store and office buildings did not have as much access to public transportation and city services as traditional residential areas. This led to social isolation and mental health issues.
This brings into question the entire structure of cities. In the US, as cars became the central mode of transportation, cities became more dispersed. Instead of one central downtown area, there are multiple areas of interest that are spread out. This describes Raleigh, with a downtown area for state offices and businesses, and high trafficked-areas like RTP, RDU, and North Hills shopping center all located miles apart. We can improve public transportation to make it more efficient and accessible. An increase of use of public transportation would greatly reduce pollution from car use, aligning with the circular economy’s first principle of designing out waste and pollution. If we are to repurpose old commercial buildings after the pandemic, it will be important to consider accessibility and city structure.
The now-empty office spaces should not fade into the background but should become the forefront of the picture to create opportunities for the Triangle and be more circular along the way. Notable examples in the Triangle of commercial spaces that are facing these changes in capacity in the face of COVID are: SAS Campus (900 acres), IBM Campus (73 acres), and RDU (5,000 acres). In each of these cases there is a potential for further development, renovation, or preservation for some or all of the property. Each case is unique to the circumstances of the territory and motivations for reuse. It is most important to choose the solution that is able to address the needs of the most people possible whether that is by providing housing, entertainment, or a place to relax.
Check out this article for another interesting read about the ways that we can adapt to COVID-19 in a circular way.