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Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

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Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#91

Post by doctoboggan »

bee_rider wrote: post #78

How is Boston doing nowadays, overall? As an Masshole, but not a city one, I’ve always kinda admired the job they do in Boston. At least, you don’t get the big dramatic narratives about it crumbling, like California cities, and NYC seems to be a bit boom-bust. Boston seems to always be doing fine. The Big Dig was a ripoff but that was ages ago, and the T smells like piss but that’s par for the course, right?

I lived in Cambridge/Somerville from 2013 - 2019 and always had the feeling that downtown was only for office workers during business hours. There never seemed to be anything to do after hours as all the workers left downtown at 5pm. If this proposal takes off it would be really nice to see a lively downtown on the evenings and weekends.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#92

Post by menus »

Arrath wrote: post #69
alfalfasprout wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Nothing says that banning general commuter cars also means banning handicapable public transit, cabs, or specialty medical transport though.

The original comment did not specify that.

It may be obvious to you or me but not to most people.

Advocates for improved cities need to understand that are less likely to receive pushback if they are clear and concise from the get go.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#94

Post by thinkcontext »

jimt1234 wrote: post #85

I'm confused. Why is this program necessary? If building owners are sitting on vacant space because the demand for office space has dropped, while the demand for housing continues to rise, aren't they already incentivized to convert to residential space just based on the market conditions? Not sure why the city has to subsidize the property owners.

Office space rents for more per SQ ft than residential, so landlords have incentive to keep it vacant in the hopes that markets come back.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#95

Post by temp-boston »

When I read this my immediate reaction is this is part of Boston's effort to blunt the impact of the potential incoming commercial real estate crash, which could damage many Boston business as well as Boston's commercial tax base.

I was surprised not to see that mentioned at all in the announcement. Is it unrelated? Is the announcement political spin to encourage those who might otherwise be against bailing out commercial real estate property owners to support it? Am I just wrong and this has nothing to do with the CRE crisis?

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#96

Post by whymauri »

caditinpiscinam wrote: post #79
skwirl wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They will have to fix Boston’s horribly broken subway system first.

When I lived in Boston I used the subway a lot and though it was ok. What makes you say it's broken? Has it gotten worse recently?

Since Fall of 2022, there's been a negative spiral within the MBTA. Primarily due to poor maintenance leading to: service cuts, full shutdown of certain lines, and the highest percentage of slow zones in recent history.

Here's a graph of slow zones:

https://old.reddit.com/r/boston/comments/11qtx82/red_line_sl...

They are returning a good chunk of the system back to regular service this Summer, though.

Edit: the slow zones might not be clear on that graph, but at one point the Red Line end-to-end was around 1-1.5 hours slower. Especially bad for commuters.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#97

Post by bonestamp2 »

steveBK123 wrote: post #7

There was a cool OddLots episode recently where they talked to a guy who does Office to Residential work and some of the complexity. One thing he talked about, which I didn't know anyone did, was to actually cut through the ceiling/floorplate of buildings to basically "donut" them. This is necessary because many office floorplans are huge with modern HVAC and when converted into residential you end up with either und…

For buildings where they can't cut the whole center of the building... maybe cutting more (but smaller) holes part way between the outside and the center would work. Then do vertical gardens up those shafts.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#98

Post by mrDmrTmrJ »

bee_rider wrote: post #78

How is Boston doing nowadays, overall? As an Masshole, but not a city one, I’ve always kinda admired the job they do in Boston. At least, you don’t get the big dramatic narratives about it crumbling, like California cities, and NYC seems to be a bit boom-bust. Boston seems to always be doing fine. The Big Dig was a ripoff but that was ages ago, and the T smells like piss but that’s par for the course, right?

Fun fact - The Big Dig can pay for itself if they ever toll on 93 like they do the Mass Pike

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#99

Post by mlyle »

HWR_14 wrote: post #75
ethanbond wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they’re suggesting just having dead space in the middle.

Because that would convert space really badly. If you're making 10'x10' rooms out of a 100'x100' space, it's 74% dead space. If a floor is more than 10,000 sq feet, maybe 40,000 sq feet, it goes up to to 90%. I mean, numbers are made up, but the point holds.

I know your numbers are made up but presumably an apartment is much deeper than 10'. You'd want to make it as narrow and deep as practical. 20x45'? 25x36'?

I get that you get (almost) twice as many apartments (presuming you don't build up higher), but you also get a massive and complicated one time cost. It surprises me that it could ever be worth it.

Re: Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

#100

Post by INGSOCIALITE »

steveBK123 wrote: post #7

There was a cool OddLots episode recently where they talked to a guy who does Office to Residential work and some of the complexity. One thing he talked about, which I didn't know anyone did, was to actually cut through the ceiling/floorplate of buildings to basically "donut" them. This is necessary because many office floorplans are huge with modern HVAC and when converted into residential you end up with either und…

Typically switching from office to residential they will remove one elevator per bank and use the empty shaft for pipe/wiring riser
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