Dorm-Style Housing: A Solution for DC’s Vacant Office Buildings

Could dorm-style housing be a solution to the housing crisis? Alex Horowitz, writing in Greater Greater Washington, argues that it could offer a more affordable and efficient option for converting some of Washington, D.C.’s office buildings to housing at a lower cost than full apartments. “Dorm-style housing differs from regular apartments because it’s made up of private, small units inside the building’s perimeter with shared spaces in the middle. And these dorm-style microunits cost less than half as much to build as converting offices into regular apartments.”

According to Horowitz, “The key to making these conversions work is leaving the plumbing as-is in the center of each floor. That means that kitchens, laundry, and individual bathrooms would be shared, just as they are in offices and college dorms.” This lowers the cost of conversion and paves the way for more units. “Unlike the $400,000-plus per unit it usually costs to build a centrally located, affordable studio apartment in DC, it would take as little as $150,000, depending on unit size, to create each microapartment in an existing office building.”

Horowitz notes that D.C.’s zoning laws are particularly friendly to this type of adaptive reuse — for example, the District has eliminated parking requirements and does not require operable windows in sleeping units. “But for conversions to microunits to happen in DC, developers need to give this model a try. They’ll also need modest subsidies from the District, which would be much lower than subsidies already offered to builders for the construction of similarly affordable conventional apartments.”