Loft Living: Culture and Capital in Urban Change

by Sharon Zukin

Book Overview

Behind the dirty, cast-iron facades of nineteenth-century loft buildings, an elegant style of life developed during the 1960s and 1970s. This style of life -- of using the city as a consumption mode -- was tied to the presence of artists, whose "happenings," performances, and studio spaces shaped a public perception of the good life at the center of the city.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0801826942
• ISBN13: 9780801826948
• Release Date: July 1982
• Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.

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.