Sydney's SoHo Syndrome? Loft living in the urbane city

In its ongoing search for a global identity, the city of Sydney, Australia, haslooked to other cities for inspiration and direction. Like many of these cities,Sydney's Central Business District, and the former industrial areas thatsurround it, are being transformed through ‘apartment’(condominium) development. Many are marketed as ‘New York–stylelofts’ via a flurry of promotions that suggest a distinctly generic andglobal form of cosmopolitan urbanism. The essay details how this recent spate ofManhattanization rests not only on a cache of historically embedded Manhattanimaginaries, but on localized socio–cultural moments that are part ofSydney's particular experience of SoHo Syndrome. Tracing the pathways toSydney's version of the global phenomenon of loft living has enabled adeeper understanding of the city's evolving built and cultural landscapes