The Big Book Of Lofts

'The Big Book of Lofts' features more than 600 different design ideas covering every part of the loft, and then some. The styles focus on the most popular used by today's best interior designers.

This text presents examples of residential lofts in London, New York, Paris, Chicago, Berlin, Los Angeles and Milan. Whether in former warehouses, converted schoolhouses, suites of offices, or one-time woodworking shops, the lofts all represent contemporary design and living. Confronted by the challenge of dealing with hundreds or often thousands of feet of raw space, loft dwellers have responded by devising some interesting design solutions. Here are lofts with open, free-flowing spaces, loft divided into rooms or arranged on different levels, artist's lofts, and lofts that function as home offices.

"A rich narrative based on a review of thirty-one architectural schemes, this book inspects the social themes and design trends of the loft movement. Benefitting from full-colour photographs - many specially commissioned - and plans, as well as interviews with architects, developers and the loft dwellers from around the world, Lofts offers both a critical history and an intriguing visual record of this singular building type."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

A groundbreaking look at the transformation of SoHo. 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.

When Koala Lou's mother becomes so busy that she forgets to tell her firstborn how much she loves her, Koala Lou enters the Bush Olympics, intending to win an event and her mother's love all at one time. "A first-rate choice for bedtime, story hour, or reading aloud."--The Horn Book

In a growing city in northern Ontario in 2082, police officer Natalie Ross patrols along the shores of Lake Superior, protecting the precious water and the landfill, two of humanity's greatest assets. She approaches her work with a cerebral embrace, but the job is daunting, her patience is waning, and her belief in society's chance at prosperity is dwindling. As the wealth-gap continues to grow and the real estate around the Great Lakes becomes invaluable, average citizens cling to their livelihood, and deprivation leads to desperation. Trapped between a glorified past and a threadbare present, the citizens of Terrace Bay do what they have to do to last another day. Natalie Ross is just trying to survive, like everyone else.