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- Title
OBSOLESCENCE AS AN OPPORTUNITY: THE ROLE OF ADAPTIVE REUSE IN CALGARY'S OFFICE MARKET.
- Authors
Graham, Rylan; Dutton, Jenna
- Abstract
Long before the global pandemic, Calgary was already experiencing a serious office-vacancy crisis. Now, with more companies adapting to having employees work from home, the outlook has become more bleak. The pandemic has highlighted the need for flexible and innovative strategies to deal with the glut of unoccupied office space in Calgary's downtown as it is anticipated that the absorption of the space will take 10 to 15 years. Maintaining the status quo will continue to have serious economic impacts and runs the risk of vandalism, degradation, squatting and various other safety hazards that come with unoccupied buildings. One potential strategy is to convert vacant office space to residential uses, a process known as adaptive re-use. However, there are several barriers to this undertaking as not all buildings are well-suited for conversion, depending on their structure, design, systems and location. Building owners must be convinced that conversion is a better alternative than demolition or to maintaining the existing condition and waiting for economic conditions to recover. Office to residential conversion offers numerous benefits, particularly if it is done in lieu of demolishing unwanted office buildings, which results in much greater environmental waste and can be a much more expensive alternative. Conversions help to limit further urban sprawl, can revitalize neighbourhoods in decline, and align with the City of Calgary's own evolving policy.
- Subjects
CALGARY (Alta.); TELECOMMUTING; URBAN growth; ADAPTIVE reuse of buildings; OFFICE buildings; OBSOLESCENCE; REFUSE containers
- Publication
School of Public Policy Publications, 2021, Vol 14, Issue 4, p1
- ISSN
2560-8312
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.11575/sppp.v14i.71326