CONVERTIBLE BUILDINGS? 

The most popular early convertible automobile was the Ford Model A Roadster that appeared in the early 1930s. The world's first truly "convertible" building has only recently appeared. This is not an apartment building converted to a hotel, like entrepreneur Frank Bernard's successfull Georgian Towers Hotel in Vancouver in 1958. Which a new owner converted back to apartments in 1970. This building converts daily! In Japan, naturally.

This is another example of the creativity that made America great in the past, but which is now more common in Asia.

Opened by IBA Inc. of Japan, this building is a hotel by night and offices by day. Since the basic business of hotels is providing overnight accommodation for travellers, IBA management found that daytime emptiness unnerving. What to do? End the hotel operations in the morning when most travellers leave anyhow and do a fast conversion to daytime office space.

Night time beds are immediately transformed into office couches, and secretarial help and office equipment replaces room service and the ever-present Japanese massage.

Does the constant stream of overnight hotel guests and daily office business executives ever get mixed up? A simple solution prevents that. The hotel room entrance magnetic card won't let guests into hotel rooms until darkness falls. If you sleep in too late in the morning you might have a bit of a problem as the room converts and you wonder if you are dreaming. An early morning wake-up call gets guests moving. If not, the extra daily office room charge will. In reality, staff make sure rooms are ready for their next intended use well in advance of the switch over.

The advantage for the landlord? They now collect double the rent. A hotel that last year grossed $5 million now can almost double its income. Are you still wondering why the Japanese have so much money?

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