SoHo: Artistic Haven of New York City

苏荷区，纽约的艺术天堂

SoHo, with buildings erected from the 1850s, often characterized by cast-iron columns and winding streets made of cobblestone, can surprise you with a postmodern look behind the door of seemingly abandoned warehouses. An acronym for SOuth of HOuston (pronounced "how-stun") Street, this eclectic neighborhood in lower Manhattan had a long and stumbling history to become New York City's artistic haven. Greenwich Village lies to its north, Little Italy to the east and Chinatown to the south.
苏荷区拥有始建于19世纪50年代的建筑，经常是以铸铁圆柱和蜿蜒的鹅卵石街道为特色，而在那些看似废弃的仓库的门面之后则是一派后现代景象，会令你大吃一惊。这个位于下曼哈顿区、体现着兼容并蓄精神的街区，名称缩写自“SOuth of HOuston（读作how-stun）”，在成为纽约市的艺术天堂之前，曾经历了一段漫长而又曲折的历史。格林威治村位于它的北面，东面是“小意大利区”，而南面则是唐人街。

SoHo's ornate edifices rose to house fabrics, china, glass and more for companies like Lord & Taylor and Tiffany's. The lower floors were designed for displays and later became perfect for the art galleries to come. By the late 1900's, the fashionable businesses moved uptown and the area developed into a seedy, sweatshop spawning slum known as "hell's hundred acres". New labor laws forced the sweatshops to evacuate, leaving SoHo a ghost town desperate for a makeover. 苏荷区华美的高大建筑是为了存放罗德-泰勒公司和蒂凡尼公司等企业的编织品、瓷器、玻璃以及其它更多物品而建。底部楼层专作展示之用，随后变成了艺术画廊的绝佳进驻之所。到了20世纪晚期，时尚产业迁到了城镇住宅区，这一地区便演变成了一个满是血汗工厂的破败贫民窟，名曰“百亩地狱”。而新的劳工法迫使这些血汗工厂迁走了，使得苏荷区成为了一个亟需改造的弃城。

Throughout the 1960's, an influx of artists seeking refuge from Greenwich Village's skyrocketing cost of living added a new face to the area. Renovated warehouse lofts with large windows, high ceilings, and generous space became popular with young artists to contain their creativity. By the end of the 1970's SoHo had developed into a community, transforming itself into a residential, commercial and artistic zone.
在整个20世纪60年代，一批寻求从格林威治村飙升的生活费用中解脱出来的艺术家涌入了进来，使得这一地区面貌焕然一新。拥有大型窗体、高高的天花板和宽敞空间的仓库阁楼，在翻修之后受到了那些要将他们的创造性纳入其中的年轻艺术家的欢迎。到了20世纪70年代末，苏荷区演变成了一个社区，转化为一个拥有居住、商业和艺术功能的区域。

In a pattern that would become familiar throughout the city in subsequent decades, the neighborhood rapidly rose up the socioeconomic scale, leading eventually to an exodus of most actual artists that left only a residual film of galleries, boutiques, exclusive restaurants, and young urban professionals. This pattern of gentrification is now known as the "SoHo Effect" and has been observed in several cities around the United States.
在一个于随后几十年内在该市随处可见的模式下，这一街区迅速提升了社会经济水准，最终导致了大多数真正艺术家的离去，遗留下来的只是一些画廊、精品店、高档餐馆和年轻的都市上班族。这一中产阶级化模式现在被称为“苏荷效应”，而且已经见诸于美国各地的不少城市。

Today's SoHo is much different from the artist community of the 1970's. Loft apartments now sell in the millions, a bit more than the paintings in the art galleries. The trendiness aside, SoHo is still one of the best areas in NYC to shop, eat and just walk about. Within only a quarter of a square mile, SoHo has an estimated 250 art galleries, four museums, nearly 200 restaurants, and 100 stores.
如今的苏荷区与20世纪70年代时的艺术家社区已大不相同。现在，阁楼式公寓的售价达到了数百万元，比艺术画廊里的油画略贵一点儿。除了时尚性以外，苏荷区仍是纽约市最佳的购物、餐饮和闲逛的地区之一。占地只有0.25平方英里的苏荷区，拥有约250家艺术画廊、4家博物馆、近200家餐馆和100家商店。

To spot the artistic elements, look no further than inside dozens of galleries and designer item shops in SoHo. From design samples to a trendy living room setting, from boutique fashion to antique sensibility, from an Art Deco table to an Art Nouveau vase, you can find many treasures in SoHo. The New Museum of Contemporary Art, on West 22nd Street, is the only New York museum devoted exclusively to contemporary art by internationally known and emerging artists.
要一睹其艺术元素，只需到苏荷区众多的画廊和品牌专卖店看看就可以了。从设计样品到时尚的客厅摆设，从精品店服装到古风古韵，从装饰艺术派的桌子到新艺术派的花瓶，你会在苏荷区发现许多宝贝。位于西22街的“新当代艺术博物馆”是纽约唯一一家专为国际知名艺术家和新兴艺术家的当代艺术作品而设的博物馆。

Once a wasteland deserted by the government, old warehouses lining the narrow streets now prove the area's artistic value by presenting a unique architectural style to visitors. The area is home to the city's largest concentration of the cast-iron fronted buildings, built as warehouses and manufacturing spaces, but converted to living spaces, called "lofts", for artists and sculptors who appreciated the larger spaces. These huge, 19th-century architectural gems (Victorian Gothic, Italianiate, and neo-Grecian among them) are prized by preservationists and the well-heeled bohemians of SoHo who call the neighborhood home. Iron-clad buildings line the streets, and emergency fire escapes stick out of the houses as if they were the stairs of a ship about to dock in a harbor. The play of sunlight on the buildings, and inevitably the shadows cast by neighboring buildings, staggered on each other, brings out the brilliance of conceptual design of this area.
之前还是一块被政府遗弃、老旧仓库林立于狭窄街道两侧的荒地，现在则通过向游客展现独特建筑风格的方式证明了该地的艺术价值。这一地区拥有该市最大的铸铁门面建筑群，原是作为仓库和厂区而建，不过后来变成了被称为“阁楼”的居住区，住着渴求更大空间的艺术家和雕塑家。这些巨大的19世纪建筑极品（其中就有维多利亚时期的歌特风格、意大利风格和新希腊风格），受到了保护主义者和将这一地区称为家园、穿着考究的苏荷区颓废派文化人的珍爱。街道两侧林立着铁铸建筑，而紧急火灾出口从这些房屋中凸伸出来，仿佛它们就是一艘即将停泊入港的轮船的舷梯。照在这些建筑物上的阳光，以及那些必不可少的由周围建筑物投射下来相互交错的阴影，将这一地区概念性设计的精髓凸显了出来。

You can find an example of SoHo's artistic culture literally beneath your feet if you go down to Greene Street. New York's oddest subway map isn't in a station: it is on Greene Street in SoHo, in front of the SoHo Building (at 110 Greene Street). In 1986, Francoise Schein, a Belgian artist, created "Subway Map Floating on a New York Sidewalk", an 87ft-long work consisting of concrete rods embedded in the sidewalk, depicting the city's underground rail network. It's another touch of flair in the district's bustling streets.
如果你去一趟格林大街的话，你会发现，苏荷区艺术文化的一个范例就在你的脚下。纽约最不寻常的地铁地图并不在车站之中：它就在苏荷区“苏荷大厦”（格林大街110号）前的格林大街上。1986年，比利时艺术家弗朗索瓦·沙因创作了一个长达87英尺、由镶嵌在人行道上的混凝土柱组成的作品——“漂浮在纽约人行道上的地铁地图”，将该市的地下铁路网描绘了出来。这是该区熙攘街道中的又一闪光之处。

A great place to spend during a sunny weekend, SoHo has plenty to offer. Come to get inspired, grab a bite from a trendy eatery or taste a sip of wine from the best wine bar in New York City. Take a stroll in the area. You will be dazzled by the tastes of thousands of thrilling possibilities lurking behind the heavy green chunks of doors.
作为一个阳光明媚的周末好去处，苏荷区的乐趣众多。来接受启迪、在时尚餐厅随意品尝一番，或是在纽约市最棒的葡萄酒吧品上一口葡萄酒。到这个地方走一走吧。你会被隐藏在厚重的绿色大门之后的数以千计的惊人可能性所惊呆的。