Hacker News Reader

Comment by actuator | Hacker News Reader

Eh, there are quite a few apartment buildings in every major city which used to be something else like warehouses

Which were gutted, abated, and rebuilt from the frame up.

Office building floors are concrete, usually. You cannot dictate where plumbing goes. Drain pipes are ruled by the iron fist of gravity. And down is technically in your downstairs neighbor's space.

I have seen few buildings in London itself which were warehouses and now have these weird shaped apartments with high ceiling height and a separate floor bedroom arrangement. A lot was kept from the old structure, some of them even make the plumbing added look more of an industrial design

Industrial garage or old single story garment factory conversions are extremely popular with hipsters. Many of the smaller places can be converted into...something. I've seen some beautiful conversions in Pioneer Square/downtown Seattle.

But the taller office buildings are much harder to convert, not impossible, and can lead to some stunning excesses (like really high ceilings with horrible heating costs) that wouldn't be possible in a direct for residential build.

> , some of them even make the plumbing added look more of an industrial design

This was probably out of necessity rather than aesthetics, but again, hipsters (especially rich ones) love this stuff.

I agree, also converted 19th century warehouse has a nice ring to it. No one will probably pay the premium for a converted 5 year old building

Ya. Early 20th century work spaces with character work well for conversions. 10 year old office building that didn’t work out doesn’t…although my cousin lived in one in Seattle for a few years, he said it was weird but the rent was cheap.

And I doubt Meta spent $181m to get out of a lease of a warehouse.

Skyscrapers are much more difficult to convert (there's an NYT article on it).

Midrise buildings might be the best bet, but even then unless you allow "basically slumlord" conversions, it's probably simpler to knock and rebuild, even if you disguise it by leaving the outer walls up or something.

The “hang everything from the elevator shaft” design doesn’t allow that, does it? You might be able to take it to the joists if it’s not hurricane season but not more than that.

Legacy warehouses are much easier buildings to retrofit.

Plus, a converted loft that was formerly a hosiery mill from the turn of the century has a certain character to it. An apartment that used to be an ATT call center doesn't have quite the same appeal.

Whataboutism doesn't change anything I said.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com