Shack to the Future

written by Pam McElroy

How COVID-19 and consistent wildfires are changing our living spaces.

The Coronavirus pandemic and annual wildfires have changed—perhaps permanently—the way we live, work, and socialize.
From the air we breathe to the functionality of our residential spaces, high technology and innovative industry professionals are responding by reinventing the buildings we live in and how we do business.

Multi-Functional Living Spaces
People want more—and more functional—space. Now that employees have been working from home for a year or more, many employers are reconsidering long-term work-from-home policies, and so, employees are reconsidering their living spaces.

Miles Garber, vice president of research at Polaris Pacific, explained how residential buildings are being planned with “origami interiors”—multi-functional spaces that can easily convert from a home gym to a guest bedroom to a home office. “Open floorplans no longer work when everyone is home—if someone needs to study for a final, another family member can’t log-in to their virtual fitness class,” he said.

New development comes to market with a clean slate, so these new requirements can be accommodated. But in cities with a lot of older housing stock, like San Francisco and New York, bigger apartments aren’t always possible. Owners of these spaces need to work creatively within existing spaces to reinvent stabilized units.

This is where companies like Bumblebee Spaces come in. Bumblebee Spaces is a San Francisco-based robotics startup that builds modular space-saving furniture controlled with an app or voice command. Furniture like beds, nightstands, and dressers are inconspicuously hidden in the ceiling until you communicate that you’re ready for bed. With the swipe of your finger, a privacy wall will roll out when a family member has a Zoom meeting, or a full-size desk can tuck away behind an entertainment console at the end of the workday.

“It’s unlikely people will spend Monday through Friday in cubicles anymore. People will need homes that provide more function, which can’t come at the cost of more square footage,” explained Sankarshan Murthy, Bumblebee Spaces founder and CEO.

Health and Wellness
“Wellness as an overall concept is quickly gaining steam in residential buildings. And as technology is advancing, it’s fusing with this trend,” said Garber. He went on to explain that fitness centers as we know them are most likely a thing of the past. Instead of gyms in poorly ventilated basements, residents are using technology to exercise safely in their homes—think Peloton, interactive fitness mirrors, and virtual trainers.

Communal fitness spaces will still exist in larger residential buildings, but they’ll house outdoor fitness classes, rock climbing walls, and equipment not suitable for urban living spaces, like large treadmills and ellipticals.

When it comes to the super-luxury residential buildings, health and wellness is being taken a step further. These high-end units will be equipped with hospital-grade MERV-13 rated filters (Minimum Efficiency Reporting Values track a filter’s ability to capture particles) and ultra-violet wands and electrostatic foggers in airducts to kill airborne contaminants. According to Garber, these will be critical amenities going forward, as wildfires and airborne illnesses remain a concern.

Outdoor Space

 Outdoor space became a top priority for people looking for new homes—but functional outdoor spaces are the most appealing. “We’re starting to design outdoor spaces—private and communal—like interior spaces. The lines are blurring when it comes to indoor and outdoor space.”

Residential outdoor spaces are becoming seamless extensions of indoor spaces, equipped with USB connections, comfortable and functional furniture, WIFI, and TVs (weather permitting).

Kitchens
Now that we’ve been cooking three meals a day at home for a year, I think we can all agree that white countertops and cabinets were a mistake. Especially those of us with kids. The wear-and-tear our kitchens experienced over the last year has taken a toll; and the more time we spend in our kitchens, the more we’re noticing every blemish. According to Garber, white kitchen materials are being replaced with materials in richer colors that conceal flaws, like dark blues and greens.

As for appliances, kitchen remodels in the coming years will reflect large advancements in technology. Single-use appliances are being replaced by appliances that connect to smart phones and smart homes. Smart refrigerators can show you what’s inside, alert you when you’re running low on inventory, and even suggest recipes. And with San Francisco and Berkeley recently banning natural gas in new buildings, expect a big push toward electric ranges and stovetops and precision heating devices.

“Touchless faucets and materials that inhibit the growth of pathogenic microorganisms, like copper and krion, are already seeing increased use outside of hospitals,” Garber adds.

Next-Level Property Management
Before the pandemic, property managers were, well, property managers. After talking to Patricia Anderson of Greystar, however, it’s clear that property managers have taken on roles more akin to event planners, providing much-appreciated concierge services.

When popular amenities like fitness centers, co-working spaces, and recreation rooms shut down, property managers replaced these amenities with virtual fitness classes, at-home movie night kits, and other virtual event packages in partnership with local businesses, like “paint and sip” nights, mixology and cooking classes, or art gallery tours. “We’re doing everything we can to enhance the living experience for residents in our buildings. People are sick and tired of being confined, and we empathize. We want to make living easier, to offer great customer service,” Anderson explained.

Now that the city has reached a tier in which certain indoor spaces can reopen, actually reopening isn’t as easy as it may seem. Resident building gyms can be reserved by one household at a time, but that comes at a huge expense—cleaning and sterilizing the facility between uses, managing the reservation system, and monitoring compliance, for example.

“We have to be aware of and sensitive to what our owners are comfortable with, while also managing the resident experience. We want people to be able to use the services they can, but we need to make sure owners have all the information to make the best decisions,” Anderson said.

Lease Agreements and Filling Vacancies
While keeping residents happy has required some creative thinking and planning, according to Anderson, the hardest work has come with keeping tenants in place—and in the city. While Greystar hasn’t had trouble filling vacancies, they are filling them at lower rents than before the pandemic. “We’re seeing a lot of people moving around within the city. But I hope with the vaccine, COVID numbers will go down and the city will start to pick back up.”

In the meantime, according to Cassandra Joachim, director of business development at Intellirent, rental property owners who are struggling with vacancies have started considering lease adjustments, like lower rental rates, rather than risk losing a tenant or having a vacant unit for an uncertain amount of time.

Joachim also noted an uptick of renters with animals that they adopted during shelter-in-place and suggests that rental property owners reconsider “no pet” policies and restrictions.

She also warned of an uptick in fraud. “Never accept paper documents generated by renters. Unfortunately, in hard times there are far more fraud attempts. Collect and gather all data in one spot to stay organized and minimize your time.” She also suggested charging an application fee so only serious applicants move forward, rather than those who are merely shopping around.

As we navigate changing times and a changing rental market, it’s incredibly important to stay informed. Take advantage of everything SFAA has to offer, from the virtual classes and virtual member meetings (see calendar on page 54) to this publication.

Pam McElroy is the editor of SF Apartment Magazine. She can be reached at [email protected].