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时间:2021-11-11 02:06:54

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Office Buildings Are Being Changed to Living Spaces Across America

In cities across America, property owners are turning office buildings into homes at an increasing rate. Online housing services company RentCafe.com reports such conversions2 are at an all time high in the United States.

The company's research considered thousands of U.S. properties that had been remodeled for new purposes. In the last two years, the report says, 32,000 homes were created that way. Forty-one percent of them were in former office buildings, RentCafe found.

Strachan Forgan is an architect with a national building design company, Solomon Cordwell Buenz. He says repurposing buildings saves the energy that went into their creation.

"As long as we can get them a new lease on life, then that can be a very sustainable thing to do," Forgan said.

Slow recovery

The National Association of Realtors, NAR, recently said some property markets are seeing a strong recovery from COVID-19 effects. These include multifamily home, industrial and business space markets. But it reported hotel and office property markets are still suffering.

The real estate organization said continuing COVID-19 concerns have slowed the return of workers to their offices. The travel business has also not recovered well. In addition, office rents, the amount of money businesses pay to use space, have gone down.

An inflection point?

"We're at an inflection point" possibly, Forgan said. In business, that means a major change in direction. His company has converted a tall office building in San Francisco into apartments. The company is working on a similar project in Hawaii.

He said, "Employers have not made radical3 changes in the amount of space that they need." But Forgan noted4 that if some workers do not want to return to their offices, the demand for office space will go down.

Sustainable and sometimes simpler

Converting old buildings is a sustainable way to add new housing. That is because needed road and public transportation systems are often already in the same place. Conversions can also simplify legal approval processes because the buildings are already officially registered in most cases.

"It's maybe faster or easier to get a conversion1 project approved," Forgan said.

But there are also barriers. Those barriers are the common reason why office-to-apartment projects are not more common.

"Zoning and permitting are probably two of the biggest costs," said Doug Ressler. He is with Yardi-Matrix, a company that provided some of the data for the RentCafe report.

Zoning describes local rules for the use of property and are different for every area of the country. "Most have been started from local ordinances5...and built up," said Ressler. Some areas, for example, are not zoned6 for multifamily housing, only single-family housing.

Also, requirements for living spaces differ from those for employment space, including levels of natural light.

Older buildings can present problems. They often require new mechanical, electrical and pipe systems. Historic office buildings, however, are often good candidates for conversion because of their design.

Conversions elsewhere

An NAR opinion study of its members in the business property market found that 84 percent of them use the same amount of office space as before the pandemic. But 11 percent reported a decrease in office space.

People have not made decisions yet, architect Forgan said. "I don't think the office market has really reacted to that yet." But he noted that it is possible a lot of office space may become available in the future.

NAR reports that retail7 spaces, led by shopping centers, marketplaces with many nationwide stores, are continuing to recover. Big department stores which have been disappearing might also be getting a new lease on life. These spaces are being turned into places where companies can store and send products that are bought online.

Similar but smaller and more local shopping centers are known as strip malls. The NAR said they are also coming back to life. Part of that recovery might be linked to the willingness of owners to get new businesses to use their space.

Ressler said strip malls are being converted for new use by medical offices and health care providers. He said hospitals that are looking to reduce costs might create urgent care centers in strip malls where stores have closed.

Words in This Story

new lease on life –noun phrase a chance to continue living or to become successful or popular again

sustainable –adj. able to last or continue for a long time

architect –n. a person who designs buildings

retail –adj. related to selling things directly to people for their own personal use

inflection point –n. a point where a major change takes place

radical –adj. very new and different from what is traditional or ordinary


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1 conversion UZPyI     
n.转化,转换,转变
参考例句:
  • He underwent quite a conversion.他彻底变了。
  • Waste conversion is a part of the production process.废物处理是生产过程的一个组成部分。
2 conversions 2cf788b632004c0776c820c40534398d     
变换( conversion的名词复数 ); (宗教、信仰等)彻底改变; (尤指为居住而)改建的房屋; 橄榄球(触地得分后再把球射中球门的)附加得分
参考例句:
  • He kicked a penalty goal and two conversions, ie in Rugby football. 他一次罚球得分,两次触地后射门得分(在橄榄球赛中)。
  • Few of the intermediates or enzymes involved in these conversions have been isolated from higher plants. 在这些转变中包含的少数中间产物或酶已经从高等植物中分离出来。
3 radical hA8zu     
n.激进份子,原子团,根号;adj.根本的,激进的,彻底的
参考例句:
  • The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
  • She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。
4 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
5 ordinances 8cabd02f9b13e5fee6496fb028b82c8c     
n.条例,法令( ordinance的名词复数 )
参考例句:
  • These points of view, however, had not been generally accepted in building ordinances. 然而,这些观点仍未普遍地为其他的建筑条例而接受。 来自辞典例句
  • Great are Your mercies, O Lord; Revive me according to Your ordinances. 诗119:156耶和华阿、你的慈悲本为大.求你照你的典章将我救活。 来自互联网
6 zoned 1a07bb31ae57d0f013be87dfa4b9cb4a     
adj.划成区域的,束带的v.(飞机、汽车等)急速移动( zoom的现在分词 );(价格、费用等)急升,猛涨
参考例句:
  • This small town has been zoned as a shopping area. 这个小镇已划作商业区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • They zoned the house into sleeping, sitting and dining rooms. 他们将房子区分成卧室、客厅和餐厅。 来自《简明英汉词典》
7 retail VWoxC     
v./n.零售;adv.以零售价格
参考例句:
  • In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
  • These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

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