Working from home and effects on downtown Pittsburgh (Houston, Penn: middle-class, university)

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

Downtown Pittsburgh Office Occupancy Is Way Down, but Energy Use? Not so Much.

https://www.alleghenyfront.org/downt...e-not-so-much/

"Downtown office occupancy is still down 83%, as workers continue to work from home during the COVID-19 outbreak. But despite low occupancy, energy use in office buildings in Oakland, the Strip District and Downtown fell only 4% from pre-pandemic levels in 2020, according to a Green Building Alliance report.

The report found that even when a building’s occupancy is low, not much changes in terms of how much energy it needs to operate."

it's all about ENERGY and CARBON, not some cold virus that healthy people have no chance of dying from

there's no reason to waste massive amounts of energy heating, cooling and maintaining these office buildings now that we have broadband internet

[Reggiezz]

They could tear all those buildings down and extend Point Park to cover downtown.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

They could tear all those buildings down and extend Point Park to cover downtown.

Or open them up to the homeless.

[erieguy]

Originally Posted by wpipkins2

Or open them up to the homeless.

Residents could also take them in and help get them on their feet.

[Jbraybarten65]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

They could tear all those buildings down and extend Point Park to cover downtown.

So tear down buildings across the country?

[Reggiezz]

Originally Posted by Jbraybarten65

So tear down buildings across the country?

This is about Pittsburgh's suddenly unneeded high rise commercial office district. Read the thread title. The end of an era should be recognized.

A downtown forest would be great. Kids born today wouldn't even know there were once buildings there.

[Jbraybarten65]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

This is about Pittsburgh's suddenly unneeded high rise commercial office district. Read the thread title. The end of an era should be recognized.

A downtown forest would be great. Kids born today wouldn't even know there were once buildings there.

It's not only an issue for downtown Pittsburgh, therefore, changes or solutions aren't unique to Pittsburgh either. It's a national problem.




It would be like thinking that Century 3 mall's situation is unique and not part of a national trend.

[Reggiezz]

Originally Posted by Jbraybarten65

It's not only an issue for downtown Pittsburgh, therefore, changes or solutions aren't unique to Pittsburgh either. It's a national problem.




It would be like thinking that Century 3 mall's situation is unique and not part of a national trend.

I don't think it's unique. Do you think Pittsburgh needs to follow what any other city chooses? Why? It's very unlkely urban bureaucrats will do anything at all. They'll watch their central business districts gradually decay. In every election, pols will promise to revitalize the city. Then crickets.

In the meantime we could have 20 years of forest growth. Plant a forest of American Chestnut hybrids.

[Jbraybarten65]

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

I don't think it's unique. Do you think Pittsburgh needs to follow what any other city chooses?

I didn't say that.

Originally Posted by Reggiezz

It's very unlkely urban bureaucrats will do anything at all. They'll watch their central business districts gradually decay.

We'll see what happens here and in other cities, but we still don't know the long term employment trends (work from home etc). It's likely that many more will work from home, but we don't know how much or how many will be in the office partially.

[eschaton]

Office space is just one part of Downtown. Residentially, Downtown grew like gangbusters over the last ten years. It has 5,500 residents now, and hundreds of new units are still in the pipeline, showing demand is still strong. It's mostly recovered when it comes to event space, and my understanding is hotels are doing decently with tourists - just suffering due to the drop in work travel.

It's also important to note that all CBDs are like this right now. Manhattan surely is, and even "red state" big cities like Houston and Atlanta. Work-from-home policies are set by corporations nationwide, meaning every CBD is in more or less the same boat.

The future for Downtown clearly involves less office commuters, but it probably involves a lot more residents as well. Once downtown and the adjoining areas hits something like 20,000 residents, there will be more than enough people just living there for downtown to thrive based upon local foot traffic alone. But there will always be some people working downtown - and visiting and staying in the hotels - meaning it doesn't even need that much.