Empty offices, hybrid models â and a golden opportunity to rethink urban living Updated April 29, 2021, 2:30 a.m. Email to a Friend Consider bold vision of a whole new live-and-work space So a âgrand experimentâ is happening in Boston as employers step gingerly into the post-COVID world of office occupancy, eh? The front-page article âEmployers crafting a new model of where we will workâ (April 28) hints at an opportunity for a bold new vision of live-and-work space, and I am wondering when the development community will step into the future. Imagine abandoned floors of office buildings redesigned as cooperative living spaces, with spacious private bed and bath suites within pods that offer a communal kitchen, social spaces, and amenities for single and coupled residents, and at total costs that beat the exorbitant rents of neighborhood apartments.