In the early days of the pandemic, many companies switched from offices to remote work. In general, I viewed this as good: fewer commutes, fewer interruptions, and happier employees.
But one big downside has emerged: Office buildings are empty. This doesn’t just impact the people who own those buildings; it also impacts the restaurants that thrived on lunchtime crowds and apartment buildings that sold residents on the idea of living within a short walk of their work and those restaurants.
San Francisco, for example, has a downtown office building vacancy rate of 24%, compared to 5% pre-pandemic. That’s a huge increase.
Are office buildings–and the cities they boosted–now on an inevitable decline? Will downtowns turn to ghost towns? As someone who lives in the city, I really worry about this.
A recent article in the NY Times talked about office buildings who rent their space as film sets, storage units, or gyms. Some are converting offices to apartments and condos. But I think that can only go so far–there’s a limit to the need for those amenities.
So what else can office buildings and downtowns do (beyond giving companies and their employees a compelling reason to work a few days from the office)? Can downtowns evolve into something we’ve never seen before, giving new purpose to the buildings there?