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Comment by Svetlitski | Hacker News Reader

> Apartments, obviously, need operable windows to vent cooking fumes and brighten living space.

I for one would be perfectly happy to rent an apartment without any windows if it meant getting a place located in the heart of a major city.

> although, of course, a common bathroom for 20 units won’t do

Again, I’d be fine with dorm-style shared bathrooms as a trade-off for having an apartment with an excellent location.

I suppose the overall sentiment I’m feeling is that I’d enjoy living in a dorm-style building for young professionals. Go ahead and throw in some large common rooms while you’re at it. I get that this isn’t for everyone, but I think there’d be enough demand from individuals in a similar demographic (i.e. professionals in their early 20’s) to make this viable, especially somewhere like SF.

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Absolutely. Unknowingly, I just wrote almost the exact comment as this. There's no shortage of TikToks's of people giving tours of their ridiculously small apartments in the outer boroughs. Imagine how alive the financial district could be with a influx of thousands of young people.

Washing people and clothes, and cooking, produce a lot of vapour which if not vented will produce mould. You will rapidly find that the health issues produced by mould are a more serious issue than location, which is why this is not left to the market.

True, but bathrooms and laundry can be shared amenities (like in a dorm). Ventilation can be accomplished without windows via ducting.

Leaving aside whether I'd want that as a young professional with a good job, I'd argue that there is a difference between a college dorm or a shared house situation and sharing facilities with a bunch of completely random people over which you have zero control.

ADDED: And it's almost certainly a fantasy to think that shared amenities and residents would be young professional friendly rather than being more in line with those who rent SROs today. (Although as the article notes, these conversions are expensive--so they almost have to be luxury apartments--rather than SROs with shared facilities.)

I don't think it can get much worse than a shared college dorm. People shitting in communal showers. People not knowing how to do laundry breaking the machines. Building fire alarms going off multiple times per week. People having zero respect for shared bathrooms pissing all over the toilet seats and floor.

Twice I’ve seen one of the higher ups add a private bathroom attached to their office. (in additional to the bathroom that the normal employees use by the elevators).

Once because of IBS and once because they liked taking mid-day showers.

Added bathrooms shouldn’t be a problem.

Adding one shower/bathroom that's used by one executive is easy, you can connect it to the existing plumbing.

Adding 20-40 bathrooms, each of which can be used by multiple people, will cause a whole new set of problems.

I think the one thing you need to make the bathroom situation work is someone constantly cleaning them. Assuming you have a fair amount of residents should be possible. I think you also need to set things up in a way where someone can't just linger in the shower for an hour. I don't know it's hard and people suck. They'll shave in the shower and leave a nasty mess for others.

That really invites mold. Forced air ventilation may satisfy the building code but is not as effective—especially if the power goes out.

My experience is that powered ventilation (especially when controlled by a humidistat for a bath or timer for a kitchen) is more effective than opening a passive window.

The power is not out frequently enough in the US to be a detectable contributor to mold risk.

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