View From The Urban Loft

As the world hurtles towards urbanization at an ever-increasing pace, there arises the need for further theological reflection on the city. Globalization, international immigration, and densification in cities are having a transformative impact on the urban landscape. Urban mission is at the forefront of many denominations, church planting networks, ministries, and mission organizations yearning for citywide transformation. How are we to think biblically and theologically about the city? View from the Urban Loft will take readers through the development of cities throughout history, act as a guide to navigating the current forces shaping urban environments, and seek to uncover a theology of the city that gives Christians a rationale and a biblical understanding of the meaning and purposes of the city and then how to live in it for the glory of God.

As the world hurtles towards urbanization at an ever-increasing pace, there arises the need for further theological reflection on the city. Globalization, international immigration, and densification in cities are having a transformative impact on the urban landscape. Urban mission is at the forefront of many denominations, church planting networks, ministries, and mission organizations yearning for citywide transformation. How are we to think biblically and theologically about the city? View from the Urban Loft will take readers through the development of cities throughout history, act as a guide to navigating the current forces shaping urban environments, and seek to uncover a theology of the city that gives Christians a rationale and a biblical understanding of the meaning and purposes of the city and then how to live in it for the glory of God.

What, pray tell, does a faithful urban ministry require if not a triadic relationship of prayer, justice, and hope? Could such a theologically conjunctive relationship of prayer, justice, and hope fortify urban ministry and challenge students and practitioners to ponder and practice beyond the box? Frequently, justice is collapsed to charity, hope into wishful thinking or temporarily arrested despair, and prayer a grasp at quick-fix interventions. An urban ministry's steadfast public and prophetic witness longs for the depth and width of this triad. Via three countries' decades of endeavors, one chapter brainstorms urban ministry practices while another's literature survey signals crucial convictions. Amid many, seminal theologians are summoned to ground urban ministry intimations and implications: Niebuhr on justice, Moltmann on hope, and Merton on contemplative prayer. Evident is passion that fuels compassion in the service of justice, hope that engages despair, and prayer that draws from the contemplative center of it all--thankful resources for long haul ministry. The triad presses to illumine a concrete ministry's engagement of relentless, forced option issues yet with significant networks resourcing. Contrast-awareness animates endurance. The summary exegetes the original grace-based serenity prayer. Hence, hope vitally balances realism's temptation to cynicism. Realism saves hope from irrelevancy.

Features modern solid fabric quilt designs with a universal appeal. This title offers a collection of 12 projects that helps readers learn how to quilt with triangles as well as master a variety of innovative techniques.

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.

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.

The Urban Loft, is an instructive and frequently very funny look at one couple's 15-year search for mid-city loft space, about finding it, buying it, gutting and renovating it, and about moving into a dazzling, one-of-a-kind residential loft of awesome dimensions - in a church in downtown Toronto.

“Although the live-work concept is now accepted among progressive urban design and planning professionals, the specifics that define the term, and its application, remain sketchy. This encyclopedic work is sure to change that, providing the critical information that is needed by architects, planners and citizens.” -Peter Katz, Author, The New Urbanism, and Planning Director, Arlington County, Virginia Live-Work Planning and Design is the only comprehensive guide to the design and planning of live-work spaces for architects, designers, and urban planners. Readers will learn from built examples of live-work, both new construction and renovation, in a variety of locations. Urban planners, developers, and economic development staff will learn how various municipalities have developed and incorporated live-work within building codes and city plans. The author, whose pioneering website, www.live-work.com, has been guiding practitioners and users of live-work since 1998, is the United States' leading expert on the subject.