I toured an office building that's being turned into apartments. It showed me just how much remote work is reshaping how we live and socialize.

The author at 160 Water Street.Juliana Kaplan/Insider

• Offices across the country are sitting vacant as housing remains scarce and expensive.
• Some developers and cities are trying to tackle both problems and turn old offices into apartments.

The bedroom I was standing in was once a corner office.

Drenched in light — and fitted with tall windows — you'd never know you were sleeping in what was once a boss' headquarters. That's the whole point at 160 Water Street.

In a past life, 160 Water Street was an office building in New York City's financial district. Its new developers told me it wasn't a very exciting one; it was lined with perimeter offices that ate up the sunlight, with cubicle-dwelling workers stuck in the middle.

Now, those former corner offices are apartments full of light and amenities that would make any New Yorker swoon — there are dishwashers, washers and dryers, spacious refrigerators, and, in the two-bedroom unit I saw, two sleek bathrooms. You can control the lights and the AC with your phone, which you can also use in lieu of a key.

It's the next big bet that cities like New York are making. In the battle over remote work, things have pretty much settled — the people who are going in are going in, and the people who are staying remote or hybrid will do pretty much anything to keep it that way. In New York City, that's led to a nearly 18% office-vacancy rate in June and July — a record high, the real-estate firm Colliers says. That's led the city to pivot from a push for RTO to a new plan: freeing up more of those vacant office buildings to become apartment buildings.

"What we are hearing from business owners is that hybrid work is here to stay, and we're trying to plan for a future that recognizes it," Dan Garodnick, the director of New York City's Department of City Planning, told Insider.

Standing next to 180 Water Street — an office building that was converted into units back in 2017 — 160 Water Street is preparing to welcome tenants by the end of the year. It's scheduled to be fully completed by spring or summer of next year. The building, which is being developed by the architecture firm Gensler and the development-and-investment firm Vanbarton Group, will have 588 units.

I got the opportunity to tour the building and saw just how much the rise of remote work is shaping how we use our spaces.