Soft Conversions

On Thursday May 2nd, 2024, Councillor Plante hosted a hybrid Lunch and Learn Event on Soft Conversions. Soft Conversion is defined as an intermediate step in the transformation of older buildings into affordable housing, that focuses on the urgent need to provide shelter to some of those most in need. Ottawa, like most cities in Canada, is in a housing and affordability crisis. Supply simply cannot keep up with demand. With a Federal Public Service shortened in-person work week, there is under-used potential to increase the supply of affordable and deeply affordable housing, while sitting on the verge of a great opportunity to entice all Ottawans of all socio-economic backgrounds back to living in the urban core of the city.

A proud resident of Ward 12, Denise Lepage, who works in this space, connected with Councillor Plante and introduced us to CSV Architects, Anthony Learning and Darryl Hood. Their firm focuses on the sustainable design of institutional, commercial, and multi-unit residential projects. Their vision is to create healthy, inclusive communities through architecture, collaboration, and innovation. This vision includes expertise in adaptive re-use of existing establishments for which they have completed projects within the urban core that you can view on their website.

Their presentation: summarized the challenges of delivering affordable housing in Ottawa; why the need for more tools in the toolbox is necessary; why soft conversion can be another tool in the toolbox for adaptive re-use; and why some older office buildings in the City are well suited for conversion to affordable, deeply affordable and/or mixed-use housing.

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