Cast Iron Living - The Repurposed Gated Community

Everyone has their preference and vision of their ideal abode which changes during one's lifetime. The residential progression may begin as a small studio, then a one bedroom, and finally a co-cop/condo in the city or house on its fringes or in the suburbs. However there are those intrepid types who know exactly what they want from the get-go and go for the jugular - like myself.

I was always enamored by those bygone urban Americana industrial warehouses and cast iron buildings and further enhanced by those countless glossy fashion ads with models posing in cavernous, raw industrial spaces. Or those pioneer artists living (often squatting) in those same venues during the 1970s. Solidifying my visions were my personal 'Constitutionals' through the historic areas of Soho NYC with its amazing clusters of architecturally gorgeous cast iron buildings before the area gentrified and became unaffordable for the average working stiff.

Additionally particular movies evoked those venues and lifestyle. I think of "The Eyes of Laura Mars" (1978) starring Faye Dunaway as a high-end fashion photographer whose character lived in a loft on Greene Street just north of Canal Street, an area that was desolate until the late 1990s. Then there was the cult flick "After Hours" (1985) about a man desperately trying to escape Soho after a disappointing, blind date and wandering from one minimalist loft to another.

Often we fantasize about certain places to live or even radically changing the décor of our current abode only to discover (sometimes and thankfully before it's too late) that it was something that it served only as a passing fad. And other times we know in our gut, sometimes at a spiritual level, that a particular living space is what we should have, acquire it and never look back.

There are still a handful of artists that during the 1970s had the foresight to buy instead of only rent their lofts in Soho. They did it because they felt that it was a place where they were meant to be, not because it might be a good investment for any upcoming gentrification. Ironically many of them made that choice when they were already in middle age, not young kids in their 20s, which meant they were committed to this lifestyle - for life. Because of their artistic profession they certainly didn't strike it rich monetarily but they acquired the wealth of a lifestyle they envisioned decades ago.

Often these classic buildings are not standalone structures. They were built in clusters because it was an industrial/commercial area. Nowadays it's a de facto gated community and that's the way the residents and firms occupying them like it - a life apart from the masses. In NYC these clusters can be found in Soho, Tribeca, Williamsburg and Bushwick. Mott Haven in The Bronx has potential but it hasn't yet caught on with respect to development and gentrification.

Buildings evoke a lifestyle, a mindset. When originally constructed these cast iron types were designed to handle mass produced items. Nowadays within those same brick & mortar walls residents design their own unique living space as if it was a blank canvas and companies tend to be internet or fashion firms whose cutting-edge approach is individualistic and creative. The blue collar worker is now replaced by the white collar internet corporate worker although ironically they both wear jeans. It's a hardware-to-software conversion, typical of passing from the 20th century to the 21st century.