Could do dorm-style housing be the solution to the housing crisis? Written in Greater Washington, Alex Horowitz claims it can offer a more affordable and efficient option to convert parts of Washington, DC office buildings into homes at a lower cost than full apartments. “Dorm-style homes are different from regular apartments because they consist of small private units within the boundaries of the building. They have shared spaces in the center. These dorm-style microcounts are less than half the way to convert an office into a regular apartment.”
According to Horowitz, “The key to making these conversions work is to leave plumbing in the center of each floor, meaning that the kitchen, laundry and individual bathrooms are shared just like you would in an office or university dorm.” This reduces the cost of conversions and paves the way for more units. “Unlike more than $400,000 per unit, the cost of building an affordable studio apartment centrally located in DC costs just $150,000, depending on the unit size.
Horowitz points out that DC’s zoning methods are particularly friendly to this type of adaptive reuse. For example, the district has eliminated parking requirements and does not require a window that can be operated by the sleep unit. “However, to convert to microcounts in DC, developers will need to try this model, and they will also require modest subsidies from the district, which will be much lower than the subsidies already offered for the construction of similarly affordable traditional apartments.”
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