Lofts: The term implies apartments, condominiums or even offices that have been carved out of existing, older commercial buildings such as warehouses, factories, hospitals, schools or office buildings. These living spaces usually offer high ceilings (12' to 14'), minimum room partitioning to maintain an open bright appearance, exposed ductwork, timber beams and oversized windows. The term "soft lofts" implies a more finished look, often white walls, industrial carpeting and more definition in room divisions. A benefit of such conversions is that they preserve the architectural character and heritage of the city's aging industrial and commercial districts.

The evolution of the modernist lofts can be traced from the beginning of the loft-living revolution, which began in the 1950's in Manhattan. At that time, artists and bohemians in search of cheap places to live and work began to move into abandoned late-nineteenth-century industrial buildings. These buildings were once the site of garment sweatshops, furniture companies, printmaker shops, warehouses, depositories, and factories. As industries moved away from Manhattan, into cheaper areas, these buildings became vacant. Artists seized this low-cost opportunity to create a new American version of the Parisian artist's atelier (high-ceiling open floor plan spaces that accommodated the over-sized paintings and art-work of the time) and began moving into these spaces not only to work but also to live. As such they unknowingly created what we now refer to as the loft.

-Loft living – Culture and Capital in Urban change , Sharon Zukin

-Neo-Bohemia: Art and commerce in the Postindustrial City , Richard Lloyd

-New York minimalism, Aurora Cuito

-Lofts: new designs for Urban living, Felicia Eisenberg Molnar