CityRealty Insider > Loft Living: Making a Comeback?

Loft Living: Making a Comeback?

JANUARY 8, 2009

More likely: The freedom of loft living never really left

Decades of cozy brownstones and sleek contempo-condos setting the city's style clocks may be giving way to former factories, open kitchens and 20 foot ceilings.

Lofts were colonized en masse in the 1960s when artists needed space to work and live, and landlords looked the other way at code violations and communal living. Industry in the city's manufacturing districts was in decline, so unused lofts were cheap and readily available. When the artist's lifestyle was glamorized in the go-go '80s, the designer loft was born. Recently the move to the outer edges of outer boroughs—like Bushwick in Brooklyn—has led young artists and others to choose communal loft spaces once again after being squeezed out of sky-high rents elsewhere. Developers have been close behnd, building new residences that mimic the open spaces, high ceilings, huge windows and industrial feel of the old factory lofts.

Some updated versions of the classic loft—without the code violations and lack of heat—include Brooklyn's Clock Tower Building and The Printing House in Soho, and new and renovated buildings throughout the city rely on the name to entice residents who want the airy, open feel of what may epitomize the urban lifestyle.

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