Empty Office Buildings Are Being Turned Into Vertical Farms

Biosphere 2: Vertical farming
(Image by kevin dooley)   Details   DMCA

With office usage hovering near 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels, cities are putting the underutilized space to new use growing food. 

Although the Covid-19 pandemic drove workers out of their offices over three years ago, many office buildings still remain deserted. According to data gathered in 10 major cities, office usage rates just crossed 50 percent of pre-pandemic levels in late January, and these numbers seem to be stalling only a few months later. Nearly 20 percent of office space is empty across the United States, and some projections suggest that more than 300 million square feet of U.S. office space could be obsolete by 2030.