Adaptive Reuse

Google street view of white parking garage building in Chicago in 2018 prior to conversion to apartments

Chicago Garage Becomes 72-Unit Apartment Building

The East Lakeview project is within easy walking distance of local businesses and transit.

August 18, 2023 - Streetsblog Chicago

Glass office building with multicolored Google logo on Google headquarters campus in Mountain View, California

Google Shifts Real Estate Strategy to Adaptive Reuse

The company is moving away from flashy new campuses in favor of converting existing buildings with interesting histories.

August 11, 2023 - Fast Company

Large empty office building floor with white walls and grey carpeting

The Death of the Office?

Despite efforts on the part of many employers to bring workers back to the office, office buildings are now the most distressed segment of the commercial real estate market.

July 24, 2023 - Curbed

Empty open plan office with gray carpet and white walls

Survey: Zoning Codes Holding Back Office Conversion

A survey of developers and architects found that many of them find it hard to meet demand for office conversion due to local regulations and zoning restrictions.

June 23, 2023 - U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Abandoned wing of Creedmoor Hospital, Queens New York with long row of windows and 'Reading Room' visible on wall

Queens Hospital Site Could Provide 3,000 Affordable Housing Units

Local residents are calling for the redevelopment of a mostly abandoned 55-acre psychiatric hospital complex into affordable housing.

June 14, 2023 - Gothamist

Four people playing pickleball on outdoor court

Can Pickleball Save Dying Malls?

The popular sport is getting backlash for taking over parks and other facilities. Now, the industry is partnering with mall developers to transform old department stores into pickleball courts.

May 29, 2023 - ABC 7 NY

REndering of two-story white supportive housing building converted from a former hmotel

Orange County Motel Converted to Supportive Housing

The renovated building offers 57 housing units and supportive services to people formerly experiencing homelessness.

May 28, 2023 - The Orange County Register

Blue Art Deco 13-story tiled Eastern Building in downtown Los Angeles

Los Angeles Reveals New Citywide Adaptive Reuse Proposal

An adaptive reuse ordinance limited to the city’s downtown core helped create roughly 12,000 units of new housing.

May 25, 2023 - Los Angeles Department of City Planning

View of renovated Greek Revival Carrollton Courthouse at golden hour with new construction building next to it

A Historic Courthouse Becomes Senior Housing

A New Orleans courthouse will now provide assisted living facilities, along with street-facing balconies and a bar.

May 23, 2023 - Bloomberg CityLab

Large empty open-plan office with rows of white desks and black chairs under bright fluorescent lighting

How to Make Office Conversions Easier

To encourage more housing production, lawmakers could help make the costly and time-consuming adaptive reuse process easier and more cost-effective.

May 11, 2023 - Next City

White multistory Hilton Hotel in Queens, New York

First Hotel Conversion to Begin in New York

A pandemic-era program designed to streamline the conversion of hotels into housing stalled, with the first project just now making its way through the pipeline.

May 5, 2023 - The New York Times

 Old sugar factory in Domino Park in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York

Bitter Irony Behind Brooklyn’s Sweet Domino Sugar Sign

A new feature on the Brooklyn waterfront is a reminder that Domino Sugar has made several unsavory appearances in the history of Puerto Rican communities.

May 2, 2023 - Mark H. McNulty

Former auto showroom converted to apartments in Oakland, California with vintage facade and new tower rising above

‘Facadism:’ Historical Preservation, Fakery—or a Little of Both?

Developers in cities like Oakland, California are turning to vintage architectural elements to inform building renovations, but this repackaging is far from traditional preservation work.

April 6, 2023 - San Francisco Chronicle

The public market at Warwick JUnction in Durban, South Africa is visible with the city ‘s high-rise buildings in the background.

6 International Models of Urban Revitalization

The New York Times recently published an article exploring six cities from around the world reinventing themselves for the 21st century: Paris, Sydney, Medellin, Lisbon, Singapore, and Durban.

April 3, 2023 - The New York Times

South of Market

11,000 Housing Units Possible with S.F. Office Conversions, Study Says

A new study by SPUR and the Urban Land Institute’s San Francisco chapter estimates a specific number of apartment units that could be built from vacant office units in the city.

March 29, 2023 - The San Francisco Chronicle

View of downtown Dallas skyline at night with tall tower lined with green lights

Dallas Ahead of the Game in Adaptive Reuse

Thanks in part to a state tax credit created in the early 2000s, downtown Dallas is set to create roughly 1,500 new housing units by converting office buildings to residential uses.

March 21, 2023 - Dallas Business Journal

Buildings on Wall Street, New York City

The ‘Goldilocks Zone’ for Office Conversion

A formula for the ideal office-to-housing candidate.

March 21, 2023 - Fast Company

Workplaces in a modern panoramic office, New York city view from the windows. Open space. Black tables and brown leather chairs. A concept of financial consulting services. 3D rendering.

Why Office Conversion is Trickier Than You Think

Converting office buildings to housing is almost always possible, but, thanks in part to design changes in newer office buildings, it can often be cost-prohibitive.

March 15, 2023 - The New York Times

Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh Adaptive Reuse Program Accepting Applications

The city has issued a request for proposals to support projects converting downtown office buildings to affordable housing.

February 9, 2023 - Smart Cities Dive

Spanish-style State Street commercial buildings in downtown Santa Barbara, California

Santa Barbara Expands ADU Program to Boost Housing

The city hopes that permitting larger ADUs and making adaptive reuse easier will help it meet its state-mandated goal of building over 8,000 new housing units by 2031.

February 7, 2023 - Noozhawk

Top Books

An annual review of books related to planning.

Top Websites

The best of the Internet—since 2002.

Top Apps

Planning apps for a brave new world.

Top Schools

The definitive ranking of graduate planning programs.

Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools

This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.

Planning for Universal Design

Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.