„Illegal living: 80 wooster street and the evolution of SoHo “ 

Illegal Living is the story of the building at 80 Wooster Street in New York and the people who lived and worked there. The first of 16 artists’ coops started by George Maciunas, founder of the Fluxus art movement, Fluxhouse Coop II spurred the development of SoHo and the spread of worldwide loft conversions.

Using archival finds, extensive interviews, architectural expertise, and first-person accounts, the authors reveal the myriad ways that the legal formalities and unavoidable business decisions of a live-work cooperative were shaped on a daily basis. The artists of SoHo, while focused on their art, also built community, participating in the creation of a new form of residential development.

The building was a magnet for the avant-garde who were drawn to Jonas Mekas’ Cinematheque, a ground-floor space that hosted happenings, film screenings, dance and theater performances, concerts, and art shows. Hundreds of artists including Trisha Brown, Richard Foreman, Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, John Lennon, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Andy Warhol showed their work in and around the building.

Illegal Living’s intimate portrait of a single building over 40 years highlights the complexity of an artist coop and puts into question any simple take on who wins and who loses when neighborhoods change. The artists who lived and worked at 80 Wooster played major roles in music, film, and the fine and performing arts. Their shared story is unique and compelling.

“To understand the Downtown New York art scene of the 1970s and 1980s you have to know the architecture of the loft buildings in SoHo. Bernstein and Shapiro’s engaging biography of 80 Wooster Street is a must read for anyone interested in the history of New York City, contemporary art, and the creative foment in New York that opened so many new paths for artists today.”

– MARVIN J. TAYLOR

Curator of the Downtown New York Collection and Director of the Fales Library, New York University

“They say real estate makes you crazy, and the artistdeveloper George Maciunas was wonderfully crazy, inventing the artist’s loft and changing the face of SoHo forever. Illegal Living brilliantly captures the birth, middle age and – some would say – death of SoHo, a portrait of an entire way of life through a single building.”

– CHRISTOPHER GRAY

the Streetscapes columnist for The New York Times

“Location, Location, Location may be a real estate maxim but, as this engaging book proves, it was artists, poets, and performers that made SoHo a cauldron of creative energy and a model of urban desire. Through the microcosm of one building, Illegal Living masterfully chronicles the tenacity, lunacy and genius of the early pioneers of one of New York City’s most influential neighborhoods.”

– JOHN HATFIELD

Deputy Director of the New Museum