Boston mayor announces residential conversion program for office buildings

Post by davisr » Fri, Jul 14, 2023, 2:58 AM UTC

ke88y wrote: post #189

natdempk wrote: post #106

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I will probably get sniped by someone who actually knows what they're talking about (please correct me if I'm wrong :D), but my impression of the T issues is less a funding issue, and more a competency/corruption issue. We're building above-ground rail at underground rail prices for one example problem.

I toured a piece of property at the border of Charlestown and Somerville near a big T stop. There was an empty lot next to the tracks that was owned by the MBTA on paper. But de facto, the neighbor and was clearly using the entire massive lot as an extended back yard (they even had a garden shed and paved parking on the MBTA owned lot). Looked up the property records. Either a HIGHLY coincidental name clash, or there…

Post by ruined » Fri, Jul 14, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

andromeduck wrote: post #222

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…

We could also just relax the window requirements for conversions.

Post by gameman144 » Fri, Jul 14, 2023, 3:17 AM UTC

bloppe wrote: post #176

gameman144 wrote: post #129

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For professions or companies where in-person collaboration is still needed, bigger concentration of business helps focus infrastructure investment into areas where it is most impactful. For instance, it's easier to make a subway line go through an area with lots of offices than it would be to have multiple separate lines passing through satellite hubs.

This stuff is mostly not centrally planned. People are free to open up offices wherever zoning allows (which is generally a lot more places than the few ultra-concentrated areas like downtown Manhattan), yet they tend to concentrate. Perhaps highly concentrating workers and businesses creates the best conditions for free movement of workers between businesses, allowing the best companies to more easily find the best…

Post by worthless-trash » Fri, Jul 14, 2023, 3:22 AM UTC

MildRant wrote: post #5

I think this is fantastic. Boston desperately needs more housing. Let's get some increased funding for the T as well while we are at it.

Post by pretendscholar » Fri, Jul 14, 2023, 3:25 AM UTC

worthless-trash wrote: post #224

ruined wrote: post #223

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this is how you end up with mass mortality events

Aren't we all subject to death though ?