Co-Founder Shawn Gehle Discusses Activating Vitality in the Housing Sector

For the Summer 2025 Allen Matkins / UCLA Anderson Forecast, OU Principal Shawn Gehle joined Allen Matkins Partner Spencer Kallick to discuss the opportunities and pressures shaping California’s housing landscape.

As developers navigate a complex environment of rising costs, shifting office vacancies, and regulatory challenges, Shawn highlighted how OFFICEUNTITLED is reframing these conditions as catalysts for innovation. From adaptive reuse of underutilized office buildings to the development of hybrid construction systems, the housing sector is on the edge of a structural and cultural shift.

“Cities are reaching a point of financial capitulation,” Shawn noted. “The bones of existing buildings can be reused, but their original programs no longer serve community needs. That is where architectural creativity and policy must work together.”

The conversation explored growing momentum behind office-to-residential conversions, vertical mixed-use typologies, and the material consequences of California’s wildfire recovery. With wood supply constrained by the rebuilding of single-family homes, the need to rethink standard multifamily construction—often reliant on five-over-two stick-frame systems—has become urgent. Concrete, steel, and alternative materials may take on more prominent roles as the landscape evolves.

Still, innovation in materiality alone will not solve the crisis. “We need to reactivate the social and civic vitality of our cities,” Shawn added. “Public space, housing, recreation, and infrastructure all need to work in unison to bring people back together and support growth.”