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newestindustry t1_j6189xd wrote

Reply to comment by AluminumKnuckles in Mayor Adams unveils proposal to convert Midtown offices into apartments by psychothumbs

This is common sense but all the smart guys here on r/nyc say otherwise.

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LikesBallsDeep t1_j61gt7g wrote

The only real issue with office buildings is probably natural light. All the noise about plumbing etc, like you can't run new pipes.

Even if you have to reserve the middle 10% of the whole building going vertically the whole height and convert that into a utility shaft for new plumbing, garbage chutes, etc, so what?

As for the natural light issue, yeah you might need to be a bit creative with the floor plans. But this is a city where people willingly live in 10 ft wide railroad apartments so I think it's possible. And if it's really a problem, again, reserve the no light middle portions for amenities, or hell maybe even some creative commercial.

Personally, given how loud midtown is, I wouldn't mind having my living room on the window side of a unit and the bedroom deep toward the middle far from windows. Dark and quiet is a better sleep environment anyway.

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cum-chatka t1_j63dnov wrote

It’s not like residential buildings aren’t usually also just rectangular with windows on the outside. Yes, converting will take a lot of effort but it’s a worthy effort

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ehsurfskate t1_j64edp0 wrote

As a building design professional I wouldn’t say knowing how to convert class C office space to residential in a manner that makes financial and practical sense is “common sense”.

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newestindustry t1_j64nf8e wrote

Damn, you should go tell your competitors who’ve gotten rich doing it in Lower Manhattan for decades that it’s impossible

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ehsurfskate t1_j64qt2t wrote

Didn’t say was impossible or that I haven’t done renos. We can make anything happen it’s just time and money that needs to be paid by the owner. Also those lower Manhattan Reno’s you are talking about are few in quantity and are very different buildings than the giant midtown office.

Financially design professionals like me would make a killing on these, these cost more to design than new builds in most cases. I can just say I work with these building owners and the financial incentive for conversions of giant midtown offices is not there. If it was it would already be happening on a massive scale.

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newestindustry t1_j64uhxv wrote

When you say "giant Midtown office", I feel like you are immediately thinking of the absolute hardest building to convert, but the plan is to make it easier to convert older smaller office buildings to residential. The stretch of Midtown that's specifically referenced in the article is full of tons of such buildings. This exact type of building has been converted to residential elsewhere in Manhattan.

As for the financial incentives—they aren't laws of nature, they're based on a status quo that everyone in the world knows doesn't exist anymore. They'll change and you'll make your killing. Get that paper!

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oledirtycrustard t1_j66ouiw wrote

hey dummy - those aren't high rise office bldgs

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newestindustry t1_j68wxh0 wrote

>When 70 Pine was built in 1932, it was the third tallest building in the world and served as the headquarters for the Cities Services Company in New York City. Today, the landmarked Art Deco building has been reborn as a modern residential building.

Might wanna Google stuff before you show your ass like this.

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