Challenger Cities EP24: Reinventing Cities, through Office to Residential Conversions with Steven Paynter

What if your city’s most underused asset wasn’t a park or a waterfront—but an office tower?

In this episode, I talk with Steven Paynter, Global Lead for Building Transformation and Adaptive Reuse at Gensler, who’s made it his mission to turn tired, half-vacant office blocks into vibrant places to live. Before "Is Downtown Dead?" became a post-pandemic cliché, Steven and his team were building the model that could help bring it back to life.

From Calgary to Baton Rouge, they’ve studied over 2,000 buildings in 150 cities, mapping which ones are ripe for conversion—and which aren’t worth the effort. But this isn't just about fixing vacancy stats. It’s about redesigning downtowns around people, not just companies.

Steven explains why:

• Cities need to treat buildings like living systems, not museum pieces
• We should  ...