Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change

by Sharon Zukin

Book Overview

Since its initial publication, Loft Living has become the classic analysis of the emergence of artists as a force of gentrification and the related rise of "creative city" policies around the world. This 25th anniversary edition, with a new introduction, illustrates how loft living has spread around the world and that artists' districts-trailing the success of SoHo in New York-have become a global tourist attraction. Sharon Zukin reveals the...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813570972
• ISBN13: 9780813570976
• Release Date: September 2014
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 264 Pages
• Weight: 0.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.5"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary

Customer Reviews

Author's comments: what LOFT LIVING tells us about cities

When I wrote this book about the transformation of lower Manhattan a number of years ago, SoHo was already recognized as an artists' and a landmark loft district. Because of the many modern art galleries and the neighborhood's general ambiance of being "discovered," it also became a tourist destination. I wanted to explain the process of discovery--how derelict loft spaces attracted artists in the 1960s and 1970s, and through them, provided a cultural core for the commercial redevelopment of the central city. Did I predict that the art galleries would flee to another neighborhood, and be replaced by clothing stores and shoe boutiques? That rents would rise and struggling artists would be replaced by rock stars and rich people? LOFT LIVING lays the groundwork for these developments, exposing the connections between chic urban lifestyle, media hype, and real estate developers. This book was fun to write and, I think, prescient.