Offices Are Becoming Homes

The room looks like your typical office: white walls, low ceilings, grey carpet worn thin from years of foot traffic. But for this vacant（空着的）office outside Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C., real estate developers see potential.

Cities across the U.S. are struggling with two problems: too much empty office space and not enough housing. Nationally, office vacancy rates reached roughly 20% in 2024, after years of employees working from home. At the same time, the national housing shortage is in the millions. Cities like D.C. are now betting that by turning empty offices into homes, one crisis can help solve the other.

A project in D.C., which broke ground last month, is the largest such conversion（转化）in the city to date. The overall structure of the buildings will remain the same, but with major additions: a lighter‑coloured exterior will replace the grey concrete from the 1960s, and old inefficient windows will be replaced by larger ones that let in more light per unit. Plans include luxuries such as a pool and a dog park, with projected rent around $4,000 per month. Yet 60 units will be set aside as affordable housing. “We would love to do more,” says Matt Pestronk, the president of a development company, “but unfortunately, almost all capital seeks a return. This was as much as we could afford to do.”

“The scale of the shortage far outpaces what conversions can provide,” says Tracy Loh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution who studies adaptive reuse of old buildings. But she argues that these projects still matter, “It does kill two birds with one stone, in terms of providing some housing supply.” And it tends to create housing in central, transit‑accessible areas that are in high demand.

The decline of manufacturing（制造业）in the late 20th century offers a glimpse of what comes next. When shifts happen in the economy and society, the built environment must change to match contemporary demand. Just as empty factory floors became trendy apartments, today’s empty office spaces are turning into stylish kitchens and bedrooms.