Except for a few administrators, maintenance teams, and those sentenced to summer school, most of America’s public schools are quiet in the summer. No lockers being slammed shut. No bad harmonies bleating from the band room.  

For a growing number of developers and housing advocates, however, school remains in session. In fact, some are so invested in America’s schools that they’re moving into them. 

A Booming Niche in Adaptive Reuse

RentCafe.com reported at the end of 2025 that school-to-apartment conversion is the fastest-growing type of adaptive reuse. Hotels lead the category overall, but according to RentCafe, “Nearly 2,000 apartments were created from former school buildings across the U.S. in 2024—an all-time high and a fourfold increase versus 2023. In that year, conversions of former educational facilities accounted for just 3 percent of all new apartments from adaptive reuse. Then, in 2024, that share jumped to 7.9 percent of the total, making it the fastest-growing segment of adaptive reuse.”

As of the start of 2026, the percentage of units originating as classroom space is up 21%, fueled in part by a national slowdown in public school enrollment. The City of Bridgeport, CT is in the process of turning a 100-year-old school into 70 deed-restricted apartments. The CTPost reported the Watersville school has been empty since 2009 and will be restored to its “historic glory” in the process.

Maintaining public schools has increasingly challenged smaller towns and cities as private and charter options have soared. The pandemic didn’t help. The Brookings Institution reported that between the start of the 2018 school year and the end of the 2022 school year, 12% of elementary schools and 9% of middle schools lost at least one-fifth of their students. 

School Reuse Offers Aesthetic Appeal, Community Pride

While restoring old schools to reduce community blight is one driver of the school-to-apartment conversion trend, so is the hip aesthetic associated with spacious, window-filled, historic mid-rise buildings. One prominent case study is in Atlanta, where Bass High Schools found a new, trendy life as the Bass Lofts. The 133-unit project led to a case study by the Urban Land Institute and is considered the catalyst for the category.

ULI’s analysis described the project thusly:

“Bass Lofts retained many of the school's original features, including several rows of seats in the school's auditorium, a Depression-era mural painted as part of the Works Progress Administration, and the school's original trophy display case. Nearly all of the irregularly shaped units feature a unique floor plan and original finishes such as classroom doors and transoms, blackboards, and wood floors. Units in the former gymnasium feature 30-foot-high ceilings. The project also creates an additional anchor in a once-declining area of the city.”

The Coyle School Residences in Taunton, MA, is another example of how aging academic buildings can meet the demands of selective apartment hunters. The property even created its brand around the idea of living in a private school, marketing itself with a “school crest.” 

Atlanta is moving forward with eight more conversion projects, Lakewood Elementary serving as the anchor. Community members worried its total abandonment would erode neighborhood spirit when slated for tear-down in 2023. 

“Through a partnership with Atlanta Urban Development Corporation (AUD), it will be transformed into a mixed-use development with up to 60 affordable home units,” according to WSB-TV in Atlanta.

Why Schools Make Ideal Adaptive Reuse Projects

There are a number of reasons schools make good adaptive reuse projects. Namely, they have what’s called in the industry “good bones.” Tax incentives help, too, as most qualify for federal or state historic tax credits. 

Most older public schools come with cavernous spaces, such as gymnasiums and auditoriums, with easy-to-edit floor plans. Many are also characterized by unique and attractive architectural exteriors and longstanding finishes, locations close to public transportation, and existing outdoor spaces. 

Perhaps the most important byproduct for developers and those holding public office is a built-in shield against NIMBYism or other forms of community resistance. Schools come with built-in legacies, neighborhood pride, and unquestionable aesthetic appeal. 

The Office Conversion Wave—and Its Warning Signs

The school reuse trend is expanding as commercial office buildings continue to lose square footage. While hybrid business models have gained popularity, America remains locked-in on working remotely. 

Chase Garbarino is CEO of HqO, a software company serving commercial landlords. He told “Fortune” that landlords need to reconsider how they serve their tenants. 

“The fact that the genie is out of the bottle on hybrid means there’s going to be a lot of structural changes in how landlords need to operate their business models,” said Garbarino. “The whole industry is kind of predicated upon the 10-year-plus lease as the one product skew that they want. They’re going to have to think and act a lot more like hotels.”

By “act like hotels,” Garbarino means shorter leases and residential-like amenities. Think nap pods, lactation stations, and freedom-to-work in any available suite. Just like home.

Meanwhile, news spread fast of a pending disaster in Manhattan. 

Construction halted July 7, 2026, on a 1,500-unit office-to-apartment project, considered the city’s largest such project ever. Support columns were found to be buckling, and pedestrians reported bricks shattering on the street. The building previously headquartered the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer, which purchased it in 1961.

Project leaders said it's nothing more than “a common construction mishap,” but it nevertheless underlines the known complexities of office-to-residential conversions, both structurally and financially.

As news of the building’s condition surged through Midtown East, the occupants of 225 East 43rd hustled to the exit, straight into the panic. 

They were summer camp students from—where else?—the Kennedy International School building.