Not necessarily. Things like "where do pipes run" so can get tricky along with code requirements for access.

There's a NYT article on the challenges about this from a few years ago: So You Want to Turn an Office Building Into a Home? -- Here’s How to Solve a 25-Story Rubik’s Cube https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/03/11/upshot/office...

This podcast is about the NYC market, but a good deep dive into why this is not a simple proposition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNkLcD3PKyk

I read something at some point that it's more expensive to convert these into residential buildings than it is to literally demolish and rebuild.

I'm not entirely sure how that math works out, or why, because one would think it couldn't be that complicated. Maybe someone here knows more about this.

Historically we did this with suddenly unused industrial buildings in cities. Liverpool and London's Dockland warehouses, New Yorks lofts in lower Manhattan.

When it is suggested today modern planners and developers say it can't be done. What changed?