Adaptive re-use of offices for residential use

Planners and politicians increasingly have to find solutions for development pressures that consume less land, generate fewer private car miles, use existing urban resources and conserve energy. One solution advocated by policy makers is to increase the number of homes within city centres as an integral tool of regeneration and sustainability policies (Department of the Environment, 1995. Our Future Homes: Opportunity, Choice and Responsibility — the Government's Housing Policies for England and Wales, White Paper, 27 June. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, 1997. Planning Policy Guidance note 1: General Policy and Principles, February. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998. A New Deal for Transport: Better for Everyone. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000a. Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000b. Our Towns and Cities: the Future: Delivering the Urban Renaissance, White Paper, 16 November. HMSO, London.). Equally, dealing appropriately with the physical legacy of the recent past is a challenging problem. Changes to existing towns and cities, however, open up the opportunities for entrepreneurs to exploit obsolete buildings to meet the needs and aspirations of the present. Indeed, Jacobs (Jacobs, J., 1961. The Death and Life of Great American Cities: The Failure of Town Planning. Random House Inc., New York.) identifies that: “time makes the high building costs of one generation the bargains of a following generation. …time makes certain structures obsolete for some enterprises, and they become available to others.” This paper examines the background and process of the conversion of obsolete post-World War II office buildings to residential use. A comparative study of North America (Toronto) and Europe (London) will focus on the experiences of two cities where conversions have registered a significant impact in terms of new homes created and had a positive impact upon the respective city centre.