Monday, November 28, 2005

Historical Loft Living

Downtown loft coffee shopI was in Cummel's the other day and we were asking the owner about the changes in the loft district in the past 20 years, or since Cummel's opened. I used to come down to Washington & Delmar to go clubbing as early as the late 80's, but didn't know much about living there at that time. Now what seemed more unconventional at the time is pretty mainstream and that was what we talked about. cummels cafe St. Louis

The first "loft" I remember visiting looked more like a garage in the middle floors of the City Museum right about the time it opened. The artist that rented there used to bring his motorcycle up the service elevator to park right in the middle of the kithen. It's really wild to hear about the history of loft living beginning in the SOHO area of New York and then take a look at what is available throughout the country today. Its a testament to the changing values of society. Check out the whole story in this historical sketch! [Loft history story taken off the linked website -- Recommended Reading:  Loft Living:  Culture and Capital in Urban Change by Sharon Zukin

And a fond congratulations to Cummels on 20 years of successful business downtown!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The link doesn't seem to work...
Can someone point me to the historical sketch?

Chris Grus said...

Sorry for the mistake. The link should work now. There was an extra "http://" in the link. :)