Project implementation: Italy
\nProject development: Italy<\/p>\n
This work examines the intersection of design, regulation, and embodied carbon in the adaptive reuse of modernist high-rise buildings in Manhattan, focusing on the recent surge of office-to-residential conversions amid rising vacancy rates and climate imperatives.<\/p>\n
In 2025, the global office vacancy rate averaged 16,8%, rising in Europe and North America but easing slightly in Asia-Pacific and South America. In the U.S., nearly 30 million m\u00b2 of office space is projected to become obsolete by 2030. Manhattan\u2014home to over 42 million m\u00b2 of office stock\u2014has seen vacancy rising from 8% to 12% since the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly 70% of its towers predate 1980 and face both functional and market obsolescence, while the city continues to suffer from a chronic housing shortage.<\/p>\n
Since the pandemic, office-to-residential conversions have accelerated globally. In the U.S., as of May 2025, the office-to-residential conversion pipeline totals 7,5 million m\u00b2 of planned and underway projects across 44 major metropolitan markets\u2014about 1,9% of the national office inventory. The removal of obsolete stock through conversions and demolitions is outpacing new completions, gradually easing vacancy and advancing sustainability goals. In Manhattan, 26 modernist towers have been converted over the past decade, with 18 more underway or planned; by 2024, 1,2 million m\u00b2 of high-rise buildings from 1960\u20131990\u2014over 10% of that stock\u2014had been transformed. Many postwar towers present recurring challenges\u2014deep floor plates, non-operable windows, inefficient fa\u00e7ades\u2014making adaptation costly and complex, further constrained by local regulation.<\/p>\n
Since 2020, New York City has introduced measures to lower barriers and incentivize conversions. Following the Office Adaptive Reuse Task Force\u2019s recommendations (2023), the Department of City Planning is preparing zoning reforms as part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, coupled with tax abatements for affordable units, aiming for 82.000 new homes in 15 years.<\/p>\n
The case of 180 Water Street\u2014originally built in 1971 and converted in 2017\u2014offers a striking example of how much carbon can be saved through adaptive reuse. The building\u2019s original structure, with its materials and construction energy considered, embodied approximately 59 Mt CO\u2082-eq, a staggering total roughly three times Brazil\u2019s energy-use emissions for 2020. By contrast, reusing that structure required just 10% of the embodied carbon, delivering significant reductions even before factoring in the environmental benefits of avoiding demolition or improving operational efficiency.<\/p>\n
This carbon savings isn\u2019t unique to a single building. Across Manhattan\u2019s modernist high-rise office stock (constructed between 1960 and 1990), embodied carbon totals about 14,8 Mt CO\u2082-eq\u2014a figure equivalent to the annual emissions of almost 10 million cars.
\nBy combining urban-scale quantitative analysis with architectural study, this research frames conversions as both a climate strategy and an urban revitalization tool, capable of preserving embodied energy, reducing emissions, and diversifying the functions of Manhattan\u2019s historic monofunctional districts.<\/p>\n
This work was developed by an interdisciplinary team led by Elena Guidetti and Caterina Barioglio, both architects and assistant professors at the Department of Architecture and Design (DAD), Politecnico di Torino, Italy. The group includes Ilaria Tonti, postdoctoral researcher at the same department; Maria Ferrara, assistant professor and researcher at the Department of Energy, Politecnico di Torino; Francesca Contrada, associate professor of architecture at \u00c9cole Nationale Sup\u00e9rieure d\u2019Architecture Paris-Val de Seine (ENSAPVS), Paris; and Elena Majorana, graphic designer and founder of ZenzeroCreative, Lausanne, Switzerland.<\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":3142,"template":"","evento-passado":[55],"local":[35],"tipo-de-atividade":[61],"tipo-de-forum":[],"class_list":["post-3066","programacao","type-programacao","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","evento-passado-sim","local-pavilhao-da-oca","tipo-de-atividade-exposicao"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n