By the 80s, "loft living" evolved from being an austere necessity for struggling artists into a fashionable and luxurious way for people in law, advertising, and other more lucrative professions to live in the city. Since no leases were rent stabilized—indeed, they weren’t even residential leases— landlords doubled and tripled rents, sometimes refusing to renew the leases altogether in an effort to force out the pioneering artists to make room for more affluent tenants. THE B