Main entry:

Shkuda, Aaron, author.

Title & Author:

The lofts of SoHo : gentrification, art, and industry in New York, 1950-1980 / Aaron Shkuda.

Publication:

Chicago ; London : The University of Chicago Press, 2016.

Description:

295 pages : illustrations, maps ; 24 cm.

Series:

Historical studies of urban America

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-282) and index.
Introduction: Art, artists, and gentrification -- The wastelands of New York -- Making the artist loft -- Gray areas and industrial slums: the Lower Manhattan Expressway -- Artist organizations, political advocacy, and the creation of a residential SoHo -- Moving art downtown -- Real estate and SoHo politics: loft promotion and historic preservation in Lower Manhattan -- The embourgeoisement of SoHo -- The spread of loft living: real estate development and tenant conflict in SoHo and beyond -- Making New York a loft living city -- Conclusion: Contemporary SoHo and the neighborhood's significance.

Summary:

"American cities entered a new phase when, beginning in the 1950s, artists and developers looked upon a decaying industrial zone in Lower Manhattan and saw, not blight, but opportunity: cheap rents, lax regulation, and wide open spaces. Thus, SoHo was born. From 1960 to 1980, residents transformed the industrial neighborhood into an artist district, creating the conditions under which it evolved into an upper-income, gentrified area. Introducing the idea--still potent in city planning today--that art could be harnessed to drive municipal prosperity, SoHo was the forerunner of gentrified districts in cities nationwide, spawning the notion of the creative class. In The Lofts of SoHo, Aaron Shkuda studies the transition of the district from industrial space to artists' enclave to affluent residential area, focusing on the legacy of urban renewal in and around SoHo and the growth of artist-led redevelopment. Shkuda explores conflicts between residents and property owners and analyzes the city's embrace of the once-illegal loft conversion as an urban development strategy. As Shkuda explains, artists eventually lost control of SoHo's development, but over several decades they nonetheless forced scholars, policymakers, and the general public to take them seriously as critical actors in the twentieth-century American city." -- Publisher's description

ISBN:

9780226833415 (paperback)
0226833410 (paperback)
9780226334189 (cloth ; alk. paper)
022633418X (cloth ; alk. paper)
(e-book)
9780226334219

Subject:

Artists Housing New York (State) New York.
Artists Dwellings New York (State) New York.
Artist colonies New York (State) New York History 20th century.
Gentrification New York (State) New York.
Artistes Logement New York (État) New York.
Colonies d'artistes New York (État) New York Histoire 20e siècle.
Embourgeoisement (Urbanisme) New York (État) New York.
Artist colonies
Artists Dwellings
Artists Housing
Gentrification
SoHo (New York, N.Y.) History 20th century.
New York (State) New York
New York (State) New York SoHo

Form/genre:

History

Added entries:

Historical studies of urban America.

Gentrification, art, and industry in New York, 1950-1980

Holdings:

Location: Library main 292649
Call No.: BIB 237031
Status: Available