Emily Badger

I'm Emily Badger.

I'm a reporter with The New York Times.

Since the pandemic, empty office buildings have become much more common in many cities.

Why can't we just turn them into housing?

It's actually a really complicated question.

To answer this question, you have to find a developer trying to turn an office building into apartments.

Ride a rickety elevator to the 30th floor of a construction site to see the interior guts of a building.

finds an expert in incandescent light bulbs who can explain to you how they fundamentally change office buildings.

And that's just the beginning of what you have to do.

When you subscribe to The New York Times, you are sending reporters like me out into the world to ask questions of dozens of different experts, to go and visit places most people don't get to go, to try to come back with answers, and then turn all of that into something that anyone can understand.

If you'd like to become a subscriber, head to nytimes.com slash subscribe.

You need to see the animated floor plans in this piece.