Once a Real Loft Building

When I was at NYU Graduate Film School, these loft buildings stretching all the way down to what is now called Tribeca were real industrial loft spaces, where artists lived--usually illegally-- so they could have these huge spaces,

One of my classmates had a big loft space in I believe this building ( that's one of the things about these loft buildings, they often have certain similarity to them which can be clouded further with time)-- we had, of course, wonderful and wild parties there ..

I am sure his space was illegal...but wow, was it a great place. He only lived there as long as he had to though, then he headed back to California..

Now this is all, as Mayor Bloomberg would want it to be, luxury housing. But the ghosts of factory workers, artists and the occasional wild student probably still linger in some of these places...