Conversions of Office Buildings:
System Considerations
They say what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, but sometimes what happens in Vegas is too interesting to keep to oneself. This was the case in a panel discussion that took place in late October at the fall meeting of the Urban Land Institute.
Entitled “Office Conversions and Building Systems: Value Add or Money Pit?,” the panel featured representatives of Walter P Moore (structural specialists), HKS Architects & Designers, and Whiting Turner Contracting Company, along with Syska’s own Rob Ioanna, chief technical officer.
Moderator Eric Verboon of Walter P Moore set the stage by describing the growing interest in office to residential conversions stemming from low occupancy of offices, and he asked the panelists for their perspectives on the viability of conversions.
Rob provided the systems perspective. He explained that although MEP systems typically comprise 20% of a project’s cost, with conversions that figure can soar to 50%. But he pointed out that there are creative ways of avoiding complete overhauls of existing systems. For example, owners can manage central air handling systems rather than replace them, by adding submetering to each residential unit planned. “It’s a huge savings opportunity,” he stated, noting that the total power of watts per square foot stays the same whether the use is office or residential.
MEP systems typically comprise 20% of a project’s cost.
With conversions that figure can soar to 50%.
Rob added that in some cases you can reuse parts of buildings instead of letting space go to waste. For instance, space not used for residential could house restaurants, event centers, art storage, and more. The key, he emphasized, is bringing in the MEP engineering early enough to evaluate the possibilities of an individual facility. The MEP engineer can assess any impediments, such as a façade with single-pane glass, which would require oversized MEP systems to make the building energy efficient and meet the criteria of laws like Local Law 97 in New York City. Other potential impediments include aging equipment, piping, and distribution.
The MEP engineer can also uncover hidden gems, Rob continued. He gave the example of a condenser water system with a riser running through a building. That gives you “ultimate flexibility” because you can put heat pumps in the building to operate off the condenser system. Existing cooling towers, dedicated outside air systems, and centralized perimeter heat systems offer similar levels of flexibility.
But we won’t give away all of Rob’s secrets. You can discover them yourself by watching this video of the panel here.