For the sake of illustration, I’m going to do some math. I’d like to calculate, on average, what 25 percent occupancy looks like in a tall building. Using the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat’s Skyscraper Center, I was able to determine that, on average, tall office buildings in the U.S. have about 45 floors. Let’s estimate that the average floor is 20,000 square feet, which puts us at about 900,000 square feet total for an average tall office building. Assuming that 200 square feet per person is the desired “maximum” occupancy for most offices, that building can hold about 4,500 people comfortably. Under normal circumstances, loading this many people wouldn’t necessarily be a challenge, depending on how many elevators the building has and what kinds of technology it uses. Read more at…..8 min.read

By Samantha Colin