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Sources for The Empty Office Is Not Housing Yet

Published Aug 1, 2026

Sources Used

  1. Adaptive Reuse

    Los Angeles City Planning / 2026 / primary / city planning

    Adoption of Ordinance No. 188793, citywide eligibility beyond Downtown, 15-year building threshold, qualifying zones, five-or-more-unit threshold, parking structure eligibility, direct building permit path, and zoning incentives including floor reconfiguration, affordable housing additions, eliminated minimum unit sizes, and rooftop amenity space.

    Accessed 2026-08-05

  2. Ordinance No. 188793

    City of Los Angeles / 2025-12-23 / primary / ordinance text

    Legal text of the Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance and its amendments to Los Angeles zoning provisions.

    Accessed 2026-08-05

  3. Citywide Adaptive Reuse Ordinance (ARO)

    Los Angeles Conservancy / 2026 / preservation organization / policy summary

    City Council adoption timeline, February 1 2026 effective date, 1999 ordinance background, 12,000-plus housing units attributed to the earlier ARO, sustainability and preservation arguments, and concerns about financing tools.

    Accessed 2026-08-05

  4. Demystifying market fundamentals of office-to-residential conversion in Los Angeles

    Brookings Institution, HR&A Advisors, Gensler, and Eckholm Studios / 2025-03-26 / research / policy analysis

    Los Angeles office vacancy and housing context, earlier ARO performance, market limits on conversions, study-area building stock, building-code barriers, and the 701 South Hudson conversion example.

    Accessed 2026-08-05

Image Sources

  1. Title Guarantee and Trust Company Building at 401-411 W. 5th Street in Downtown Los Angeles, photographed May 2008.

    Los Angeles / 2008-05 / CC BY-SA 3.0 / GFDL

    Permission contact: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Los_Angeles

    Original file: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dd/Title_Guarantee_and_Trust_Company_Building%2C_Los_Angeles.JPG