Adaptive re-use of offices for residential use - The experiences of Londonand Toronto

Planners and politicians increasingly have to find solutions for developmen t pressures that consume less land, generate fewer private car miles, use e xisting urban resources and conserve energy. One solution advocated by poli cy makers is to increase the number of homes within city centres as an inte gral tool of regeneration and sustainability policies (Department of the En vironment, 1995. Our Future Homes: Opportunity, Choice and Responsibility - the Government's Housing Policies for England and Wales, White Paper, 27 J une. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, 1997. Planning Policy Gui dance note 1: General Policy and Principles, February. HMSO, London; Depart ment of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 1998. A New Deal for Tr ansport: Better for Everyone. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 2000a. Planning Policy Guidance Note 3: Housing. HMSO, London; Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, 20 00b. Our Towns and Cities: the Future: Delivering the Urban Renaissance, Wh ite Paper, 16 November. HMSO, London.). Equally, dealing appropriately with the physical legacy of the recent past is a challenging problem. Changes t o existing towns and cities, however, open up the opportunities for entrepr eneurs to exploit obsolete buildings to meet the needs and aspirations of t he present. Indeed, Jacobs (Jacobs, J., 1961. The Death and Life of Great A merican Cities: The Failure of Town Planning. Random House Inc., New York.) identifies that: "time makes the high building costs of one generation the bargains of a following generation....time makes certain structures obsole te for some enterprises, and they become available to others." This paper e xamines the background and process of the conversion of obsolete post-World War II office buildings to residential use. A comparative study of North A merica (Toronto) and Europe (London) will focus on the experiences of two c ities where conversions have registered a significant impact in terms of ne w homes created and had a positive impact upon the respective city centre. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.