Soho is a world famous neighborhood in Lower NYC, probably the most famous neighborhood in the world after the Central Park area.
The Name Soho, which was coined in the 1970s, comes from many places. Most people when they here Soho think of SOuth of HOuston street. Other downtown NYC neighborhoods had terms like this too. For example Soho's lesser known "architectural twin" Tribeca, gets its name from TRIangle BElow CAnal street (canal street is Soho's southern border). The Name is also at the same time a play on words. Soho is also a similar well known neighborhood in London, and that gets its name from the "Soho" bird call used by hunters hundreds of years ago in theLondon Soho area.
The Soho NY area was first developed in the early 1800s as the small city of New York began to grow out of the small tip south of even Tribeca. A polluted infested pond in the area was drained into a canal where canal street now stands. The area soon filled up with small modest Federal, and Greek revival homes (making the area similar to Alexandria VA, or even parts of Greenwich Village) .
Around 1850 though, things began to change. As the industrial age gained steam, New York began to swell in size, and downtown began to grow up the island. Businesses built new buildings and factories in Soho, and The residents began to leave until the area was predominantly commercial and industrial in the 1870s. During this time Businesses of many types ranging from shops to hotels to merchant warehouses and factories came into the area.
These new buildings pioneered architecture and design of the modern building, with the use of the new American innovation, cast iron. Cast Iron was quickly mass produced by molding designs out of cast Iron, which was much quicker and cheaper than carving something out of stone or wood. The molded pieces were then sent to the construction site of the building where they were assembled together. Since the designs were still just as beautiful as regular stone or wood, they were sometimes constructed or adapted to the front of a building. These "iron fronts" were constructed all over the world, especially in England, Australia, NYC, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, and Richmond. New York had by far the most of all (over 250 constructed in the mid 1800s), and the Majority of them were located in Soho. These structures were built in the popular Italianate style, or Second Empire if they had a mansard roof on top of them. These new structures can be considered the first skyscrapers as they contained earlyelevators, and a skeletal frame.
Cast Iron Design
By 1900 Soho had become a major textile factory district where people of all ages toiled in brutal conditions. Eventually the area began to go into decline as development moved to downtown, and midtown. By the mid 20th century, even the textile industry moved south. The 1950s were the worst time in Soho's History. The area had become an industrial wasteland, of empty warehouses, sweatshops known as Hell's 100 acres. Even a few buildings were ignorantly torn down for things as ridiculous as gas stations, and parking lots. The worst came in the 1960s when the planner Robert Moses wanted to build an expressway through Soho and bulldoze the entire area.
Thankfully by some great miracle, the urbanist Jane Jakobs was able to get the city council to vote against it. Even better than that, the neighborhood experienced gentrification in the late sixties as many artists came back into the city and bought up abandoned floors for art studios because of the amount of room they had. Even though this was illegal (due to the non residential zoning laws), the financially desperate city let artists use the structures. Finally in the early 1970s, the city (legally) permitted the use of joint living-art spaces in new more urban friendly zoning codes.
In the early 1980s, with the affordable loft law, the city let non artist residents finally live in Soho, and the popularity of the neighborhood soared The area began to attract the best clubs and finest boutiques in all of New York City. Although some of the artists left, many of the greatest artists have stayed, and many new galleries opened.
Today Soho is arguably the greatest and by far the most eccentric neighborhoods in New York. A single loft costs just as much as a Brownstone, and the whole neighborhood is crawling with tourists and artists in one of the greatest urban paradises in the whole world. The Soho effect, also known as gentrification, has brought new life to almost every single city in the united states as people find themselves bored with the quiet aesthetically defective, inefficient suburbs. Old buildings of all types can now be re purposed thanks to the 1998 historic tax credits, and the trend of urbanization has been reversed, in part because of the artists who wanted to work in Soho.
The Soho Historic district was established in 1973, and became a historic landmark in 1978. It contain 26 blocks and was expanded in 2010. The main roads include Broadway, Houston, Canal, Broome, and Greene streets. In 2005, the city allowed structures to be built in the empty parking lots, and now, few remain.
There are many well known buildings in Soho. Perhaps the best known are below.
The E.V. Haugwout building is by far the most famous building in Soho. Built in 1857 by John P Gaynor, it was one of the first cast iron buildings in Soho. What makes it very famous is its architectural beauty, and the fact that the worlds first elevator was built for the original occupiers, the E.V. Haugwout porcelain factory, who needed a way to transport delicate objects from floor to floor. The Structure itself was based off of the Sansovino Library in Venice.
Two other very famous structures are the King and Queen of Greene Street, who both wear huge crowning cornices. The 1873 buildings were designed by Isaac Duckworth and built in the Second Empire style, and proved that cast iron architecture could be beautifully and heavily ornamented.
King of Greene Street
Queen of Greene Street
Along with Italianate originated and Second empire Baroque related structures, there were a few Art Nouveau, and Chicago-classical structures in Soho, such as the following three.
The Roosevelt building, which was built for the same family of Theodore Roosevelt was completed in 1873. The Art Nouveau building was designed by The famous Richard Morris Hunt.
The Art Nouveau Little Singer Building was designed by Earnest Flagg and completed in 1904 (built for Singer sewing) It was considered little because of the larger Second Empire 1908 Singer Building, which was the tallest building in the world. Sadly though, the 1908 structure was demolished only 60 years later.
Little Singer Building
Big Singer Building
The Silk Exchange building which was diagonal from the E.V. Haugwout building was a Chicago styled building built in 1896. Although it was not all that well known, it makes an impression in Soho.
Lastly, Soho is currently the home of the hottest and newest fashions along with the beautiful art and architecture.
