Quote:
Originally Posted by 10023
Yeah. But much harder to replace. How do you retrofit all those buildings to not look like shit from the street?
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Believe it or not you can actually often rip whole floor slabs out of reinforced concrete frame buildings. They carry very little load structurally besides the loads placed upon them (vehicles, humans, files, whatever). That's how many of these huge old multi floor loft warehouses are made habitable. They will actually cut whole bays out of these old buildings to create a light well. They will also knock out bays and rebuild with new ramps attached to the old concrete to allow the floors to be used as a garage. The challenges associated with deconverting a podium are pretty much what you would do to turn a loft warehouse into a parking garage but in reverse. Take the ramps out and pour new flat floors, maybe take out every other slab and go from a 7' ceiling height to 14' loft ceilings. As long as you aren't permenantly removing any major beams (though these can be moved if you really need to), shear walls, or columns, then you can pretty much do what you want.
My prediction is that converted garages will be the "found space" of the next generation in the same way that old industrial spaces are being reclaimed today. Someday it will be chic to live in the relics of the automobile era. Imagine a time when human controlled vehicles are as rare as a horse and buggy. It will be like living in an old carriage house or elicit the same fascination as old school "manual" factories do today. There will be a day where almost no one drives and the act of "parking the car" is a relic of a past era. People will almost never enter garages in the near future, it will be as surreal as "exploring" the remnants of an old industrial complex is to our generation.
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