Steven Paynter is the Global Leader of Building Transformation and Adaptive Reuse at Gensler. Steven led Gensler's original research team, which developed a conversion algorithm for the rapid assessment of existing office building stock and ESG assessment.
Widely regarded as an industry leader, Steven focuses on unlocking the value of Class B & C buildings by converting them to residential, shaping the future of cities, the design of post-pandemic office buildings and led high-rise mass timber projects with Google and Sidewalk Labs for five years. Steven also featured on Forbes' 2023 The Future of Work list, which highlights the top 50 leaders rethinking the world of work.
Speaking at
Tue May 13
4:00 PM — 5:00 PM (GMT-07:00) Mountain Time
Filling the Knowledge Gap: Guiding the U.S. Government on Office-to-Residential Conversions
In January 2024, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) made a significant commitment to accelerate the adoption of innovative practices and policies to increase affordable housing.
As part of this commitment, Gensler was awarded funding to analyze office-to-residential conversion activities across six U.S. cities, test the financial feasibility of these conversions, study policy and incentives, and build an online community guide to allow local policymakers to estimate the impact of potential conversion policies on their community. Now, Gensler is putting together a panel of experts—directly involved with HUD—to discuss the ongoing analysis, share preliminary findings, explore how Gensler and its partners are advising the government on the topic, and debate what must be done to unlock additional affordable housing in the United States.
The session will outline the team's approach to the analysis; highlight the initial findings in one of the six identified cities; present the recommended changes to city, state, and federal policy; and provide an update on how HUD and one of the key cities is going to adopt the policy.