The Challenges of Converting Larger Office Buildings Into Apartments

It used to be that it wasn’t that difficult to convert an office building into lofts.

“A developer could find a building that had the right kind of bones and the right neighborhood,” says John Cetra, cofounder at New York-based architecture firm CetraRuddy. “Because the building already existed, you had a structure and you had an envelope. So you were dealing with replanning and an upgrade. Those were the easiest things to get done.”

But buildings constructed after 1960 got a lot larger. Cetra says those buildings will require a “rethinking of regulations.” He says New York City’s zoning resolution went through a significant revision in 1961.

“Those buildings are much bigger,” Cetra says. “Therefore, the plates are much deeper. The idea of what to do with the internal part of that space is really where the discussion goes.” In these buildings, Cetra thinks regulations will need to be rewritten. “Things like the distance between the windows and walls will also have to be changed to make up for the ventilation that would have come through a window,” Cetra says.

Cetra says developers and architects need to be very creative with larger buildings. “How do you plan for these long spaces where you might have an apartment that is maybe 50 feet in depth from the window,” Cetra says.

With everyone now aware of the potential of airborne virus, Cetra says that developers and architects also need to think about ventilation with office conversions.

“How do you provide ventilation and then overlay that with everybody’s concern about COVID and sharing air?,” he says. “How do you plan those buildings and zone those interior spaces to maintain a higher level of fresh air that’s coming into those spaces?”

Previously, regulations would simply rely on the exterior windows. If they were big enough, it was assumed that they would provide enough air for those deeper spaces, according to Cetra. “Otherwise, you had to do mechanical ventilation,” Cetra says. “The standards were probably not as high as one would want to provide now, or even would need to provide now.”

With these larger buildings, it is also difficult to design a 450-foot studio apartment, which were available in older, more boutique properties. “It’s going to be very tough,” Cetra says. “If you do find one, it’s going to be very, very narrow and very, very deep. It’s not going to be the most desirable space. So, you’ll probably end up giving people more area for the money because you have that space to give them.”

But there is an upside. “I think people might actually enjoy some of those, some of those layouts because they get to be very interesting,” Cetra says.