Department of City Planning loft rezoning slides

Collection REC0075 - RG 026. Department of City Planning

Abstract

This collection consists of 495 35mm, color, polyester slide transparencies taken by the Department of City Planning to document loft buildings in New York City in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The department was studying the condition and status of illegal loft apartments in the city to assess how they could be regulated. The slides primarily depict building exteriors though some interiors are also included.

Extent

0.25 cubic feet (495 slides in 1 quarter cubic foot box)

Dates

1979-1985

Creators

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open for research.

Physical Location

Materials are stored at 31 Chambers Street in Manhattan.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This material was transferred to the New York City Municipal Archives from the Department of City Planning in 2007.

Alternate Forms Available

Most of the collection has been digitized and can be accessed via the Digital Collections website.

Processing Information

An item-level inventory was provided at the time of accessioning in 2007. The slides were digitized by Municipal Archives staff, rehoused in archival quality slide guards and acid-free folders and box, and the inventory was transcribed into an Access database. The digitized collection was originally made available online in a collections portal (Luna). In 2024, collection metadata was remediated by Archives staff to adhere to archival standards (Dublin Core) and the collection was made available online in a new digital collections portal (Preservica). A resource record (finding aid) was created in 2025 in ArchivesSpace.
The New York City Department of City Planning conducted surveys of loft buildings and illegally converted loft apartments in the late 1970s. The slide transparencies in this collection were created as documentation for those studies, though it is unclear which specific study these images were part of. The images were taken approximately between 1979 and 1985.

The slides document neighborhoods such as TriBeCa, SOHO, Chelsea, West Village, Garment District, South Street Seaport, Battery Park, Park Slope, Brooklyn Heights, and DUMBO. The slides primarily show building exteriors though there are some interiors included. Evictions of artists from American Thread Building in lower Manhattan are also depicted. There are some general city views as well.
In the late 1970s, New York City government began exploring solutions to the problem of illegals conversions of commercial loft space into residential dwellings. New Yorkers had long been living in converted loft apartments, but there were no standards regulating the conversion of the spaces or rents. As manufacturing and other trades continued to leave New York City in the mid-20th century, illegal loft conversions increased mostly in Manhattan but also in industrial areas of Brooklyn.

The Department of City Planning undertook a study on the subject in 1977, generating several reports and policy proposals. The study found a proliferation of these apartments in several neighborhoods that were once manufacturing hubs. Relevant departments stepped in and issued violations to landlords and in some cases temporary restraining orders against continued work on the buildings.

Soon after, in 1982, the state passed a law legalizing and regulating residential apartments in commercial and manufacturing buildings. The law created a new building classification: Interim Multiple Dwellings. It also mandated New York City create a Loft Board to implement the new law in the five boroughs.
Materials are arranged roughly geographically by slide subject.
Title
Guide to the Department of City Planning loft rezoning slides, 1979-1985
Status
Completed
Author
Katie Ehrlich
Date
2025 May
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English