If we do this everywhere it will make for a much better future. High density, walkable cities are so much nicer to live in than suburban sprawl car dependent cities

I like this idea. Couple that with shifting to more working from home positions. Free up office space that can be converted into housing instead of wasting money/resources clearing land and constructing a new building. Meanwhile, it saves the company money that would be used to rent office space and pay for utilities. The worker spends less money/time commuting, it reduces fuel emissions, and yields greater productivity for the employer.

Can we make this happen?...

Edit: Just noticed the community after wondering in from browsing all. I'm no where near Boston haha. Still would love to see this catch on.

I really wouldn't mind seeing this with commercial/residential mixes. Stores on first floor, apartments above sounds cool. Maybe even have childcare thrown in there somewhere as well. Like mega blocks from Judge Dredd, but.... nicer.

Yes, this sounds like a good idea.

Also, bring in residents you bring back commercial too, win/win.

I doubt this will work. Office buildings are structurally and architecturally very different from residential buildings. In a recent case in my home city of Ottawa, it cost the developer the same amount to retool an office building for residential as it would have for them to tear it down and rebuild a new residental tower in its place.

Minimum 20% affordable is pretty rough for such a big tax break but better than nothing I suppose.