In Midtown Manhattan, two adjoining office buildings on 42nd Street are slated to be transformed into housing. The adaptive reuse project is by Genslers New York office. Metro Loft and David Werner are the development partners. The two existing buildings are at 229 East 42nd Street and 219 East 42nd Street; the former is 33 stories and the latter is 10 stories. The conversion is made possible by Mayor Eric Adamss Midtown South Mixed-Use program, a facet of his administrations Manhattan Plan.Robert Fuller, a principal at Gensler, sees the conversion as the start of something bigger underway in Midtown today, a CBD with astonishingly high office space vacancy rates. Conversions offer the promise of helping to transform more areas that were historically centralized business districts into vibrant, 24/7 neighborhoods,Fuller said.The architects will replace all 2,000 existing windows and the metallic skin with a new, much lighter facade. (Courtesy Streetsense)Although there has been a big focus on conversions in recent years, it really is not a new concept, Fuller added. New York City has a long history of repurposing outdated buildings to create new housing. All you have to do is walk the streets of SoHo or the waterfront in Brooklyn and youll see endless examples of old manufacturing and factory buildings converted to residential. We envision a future where office conversions in Midtown and the Financial District hold a similarly cherished place in the history of the city. Howd We Get Here?For decades, the anchor tenant at the site on East 42nd Street was Pfizer. The pharmaceutical company moved into its HQ in Midtown in 1961, around the same time it began uplifting its research operations to Groton, Connecticut. Pfizer commissioned a bespoke mural by Nikos Bel-Jon, a Greek artist, for the buildings lobby with renditions of Hippocrates and Louis Pasteur (an artwork which has since been safely moved). In 1998, the HQ was renovated by Hoffmann Architects + Engineers. That refurbishment yielded an expansive, rather nebulous piece of ceiling art by Brian Clark, a confidant of Zaha Hadid. In 2023, Pfizer relocated from 42nd Street to Hudson Yards, leaving its old base empty. Construction permits were filed for the project last summer, and Gensler just publicly shared renderings of the revamped buildings this month. After the conversion, the buildings will have 1,600 residential units, a quarter of which will be affordable. There will be a total 100,000 square feet of amenity space, including a rooftop pool and fitness center.The 33-story building is broken up into three volumes which interstitially step back from the street. The breaks happen at the eleventh and 15th floors. The rendering Gensler shared of the project shows a new, much lighter facade wrapped around the buildings that would replace the existing, metallic exterior we have today. All 2,000 existing windows will be replaced.The work underway on 42nd Street marks a significant addition to Genslers office-to-residential conversion portfolio. Its first foray into the typology was at Pearl House in the Financial District, another business hub struggling with high vacancy rates. Gensler told AN that its currently designing more than 5,000 residential units inside former New York City office buildings today.Residents should be able to move into the new 42nd Street housing complex in 2027.