FYAToMLG / how ephemeral is the fashion of lofts in Manhattan?

early stuff, still good!
Today is the day to take that occasional OYAToMLG series into the way-back machine. I probably came across this post when I was playing in the deep Manhattan Loft Guy archives last week, and I like it.

This makes for an (even more ocassional) FIVE Years Ago Today on Manhattan Loft Guy feature. It’s kinda like looking at your kid’s baby pictures on her 25th birthday….

Way back on March 22, 2006, Lofts waxed as fashionable; will they wane? (NY Times article 3.19.06), I riffed on a New York Times article about how ‘fashionable’ different kinds of Manhattan living spaces are. I said then:

I think the great take-away from the Times piece is the recognition that the things that make classic prewars "classic" will remain (the wonderful ‘flow’ of rooms, boulevard locations, the proportions, and the relatively high ceilings) so that there is likely to be a market segment willing to pay for these elements into the future.

Not so — necessarily — the slapdash construction from the 1960s through 1980s in buildings that were built as rentals and converted to coops or condos. The buildings from this era that will suffer in the market personify "cookie cutter", with low ceilings (often ‘popcorn’) and no sense of proportion.

But many loft buildings contain units that are "classic" (vast, flexible space, ‘character’, high ceilings, much light), so they are likely to attract a market segment "always".

That’s my story, at least, and I am sticking to it.

I still think ‘classic’ lofts will stand the test of time; I do wonder about some of the glass uber-condo loft developments. That is my story, and I am sticking to it.

© Sandy Mattingly 2011