Converting offices into Housing -Jas Johal Show CKNW

While I most often listen to CBC radio, over the years, I have enjoyed my association with radio station CKNW. (I would listen to CKNW more often, but I tire of the same commercials, especially "you're approved!")

Prior to the 2008 election, I enjoyed being a guest on the Christy Clark show. The highlights were often our conversations during commercial breaks, and I sometimes regret not taking her advice to go door knocking as a candidate during the election. She also rightly advised me to get better known in the South Asian community. (When Kennedy Stewart did a postmortem on the election, he told me that while I did well on both the eastside and westside of the city, I did very poorly in those ridings with a larger South Asian population.)

For three years following the 2008 municipal election, I participated on CKNW's Civic Affairs Panel, a weekly feature on the Bill Good Show. The more time I spent with Bill Good, the more I respected him. I enjoyed discussing issues with fellow panelists Frances Bula and the late Jim Green, although Jim and I did not always agree completely on many issues. But then again, we came from quite different worlds, and had vastly different perspectives on most matters. I never tired of Frances' perspective on issues.

I also enjoyed being an occasional guest with Jill Bennett, Linda Steele, and Jody Vance. However, over the past few months, I have especially enjoyed chatting with Jas Johal. Although I have never actually met him in person, since our interviews are over the phone, I admire his calm disposition and thoughtful questions. He strikes me as a very caring sort of person.

Over the past few weeks, we have discussed several topics including David Eby's housing proposals, the financial difficulties of the developer Coromandel, and most recently the growing interest in converting office buildings into housing. One of the advantages of having to appear on the show is that it forces me to do a bit of research on a topic before our conversation.

The Qube was formally the Westcoast Transmission Building

Conversion of the BC Hydro Building into the Electra was one of the first high profile conversions in Vancouver.

This was particularly true on the matter of converting offices into housing. While I have never undertaken such a project, I have had a longstanding interest in the concept. I remember well when the BC Hydro building became The Electra in 1995 https://theelectra.ca/ and the Westcoast Transmission building (the building suspended by cables on Georgia Street) was converted into the Qube condominiums in 2005 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Qube_(Vancouver)  Both clever names!

Here are a few more observations based on the limited research I undertook.

This has become a hot topic in the US, especially Washington https://www.washingtonian.com/2022/07/28/should-dcs-empty-office-buildings-get-turned-into-apartments/ and some Canadian cities where the office vacancy rate is high and there is a desire to enliven the downtown. Calgary certainly comes to mind. The Urban Land Institute has included it in several recent publications and a forthcoming workshop is being held. 

ULI publication-fall 2022 special feature – can be complicated and tricky but daring developers and ingenious architects are showing the way to address housing shortages

Sustainability proponents often argue that the most sustainable building is one that already exists. For this reason, conversions can be highly desirable. However, they are not always feasible. Factors influencing the likelihood of success include the size of the floorplate, and whether the windows may be too far away from the core; and whether there are 'post-tensioning' cables in the floor. This is common in some office buildings since it reduces the number of columns. However, it makes it difficult to drill holes for plumbing.

One of the advantages of conversions is that although they are not always less expensive, they are usually faster to complete since most of the structure can be reused.

One challenge of conversions is the fact that office buildings rarely have balconies or other outdoor space. This can be addressed by creating 'Juliette balconies' which are essentially a railing in front of a sliding door. However, another potential solution is to add a bank of balconies to the outside, with access doors. Several companies, including Lumon, the Finnish company to whom I consult on retractable balcony glass panel systems, are exploring the feasibility of adding balconies to existing buildings. This could be a game changer, especially since Covid has increased the desire for some private outdoor spaces associated with dwelling units.