SoFi (South of Fifth Avenue or South of Flatiron)
"SoFi" can mean either "South of Fifth Avenue" (this doesn't exactly make sense because Fifth Avenue runs north and south!) or "South of Flatiron" (this doesn't make sense, either--"Fi" for "Flatiron?).
There is a SoFi in Miami, where it means "South of Fifth Street."
http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nythr-170.html
ID# 170.2 (reply to #170.1) - 29 July 2000
Neither, in fact.
The name "flatiron" was given to the Fuller Co. Building at Fifth and 23rd simply due to its triangular plan shape, no general stylistic term there.
Flatiron/Fuller is located in the Madison Garden Park area, not SoHo, although the area south of Flatiron is unofficially dubbed (by some) as SoFi (South of Flatiron). ED
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/02/15/oh_sofi_you_so_fine.php
Oh Sofi, You So Fine
Tuesday, February 15, 2005, by Lockhart
A lot across the street from the Empire State Building at 325 Fifth Ave. has been cleared for a new 41-story residential skyscraper, and the developer is predicting big things for the quasi-depressed South Midtown microneighborhood. Reports Lore Croghan, "'Come back in two years, and this will be a real residential neighborhood,' he said. He's coined a new name for the nabe—SoFi, which stands for 'South Fifth Avenue.'" So Fine!
· Empire Neighbor [NYDailyNews, 3rd item]
http://www.zilbert.com/sofi.asp
South Beach SoFi District - a very special place!
At the very southern tip of South Beach is Miami's hippest and most luxurious neighborhood. It's called SoFi ("so fye") and it means everything "South of Fifth" street. Not only will you find Miami's newest and most unique condos and lofts, but SoFi is home to some of South Beach's greatest restaurants and clubs (Nemo Restaurant, Shoji, China Grill, Opium Garden, Smith and Wollensky, Nikki Beach, Joe's Stone Crabs and others).
27 March 1987, New York Times, pg. C:
A STRIKING addition to the lower Fifth Avenue dining orbit is Sofi, formerly the Fifth Avenue Grill. Richard Lavin, owner of Lavin's on West 39th Street, has taken the soaring yet austere space and imparted an air of warmth and sophistication befitting the alluring new menu. Hand-rubbed blended pastel walls mimic
22 May 1987, New York Times, pg. C
MANHATTAN needs another baffling geographical acronym about as much as it needs a few hundred more T-shirt shops. Try out the latest: SOFI. Stumped? To muddle matters further, SOFI has two meanings: South of Flatiron, and an ambitious new restaurant on Fifth Avenue near 15th Street.
Miami Herald archives
Miami Herald - July 8, 1990 - 13K TRAVEL
SOFI: IT'S THE NEW NEW YORK STATE OF MIND SOFI STANDS FOR 'SOUTH OF THE FLATIRON BUILDING,' A TRIANGULAR SKYSCRAPER IN LOWER MANHATTAN
. NEW YORK -- In an island awash in acronymic and trendy neighborhoods -- TriBeCa, SoHo, NoHo -- the SOFI district is perhaps the least known by name. Yet it's fast becoming one of the best known by place -- an increasingly popular downtown stomping ground. Derived from "South of Flatiron" -- as in the Flatiron Building, Daniel Burnham's landmark 1902 triangular skyscraper -- the SOFI district is an area of roughly two dozen blocks bounded by...
16 February 2005, Real Estate Weekly, pg. 4R:
SoFi set to be Manhattan's next trendy neighbourhood.
(Residential: marketing & brokerage)(South Fifth Avenue corridor)
SoHo, NoHo and Tribeca, better watch out. Here comes SoFi!
The Fifth Avenue corridor from 23rd to 34th Streets, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, is emerging today as one of Manhattan's trendy new neighborhoods. Until recently a "hodgepodge" of commercial buildings, the landscape of the area is now shifting dramatically thanks to a half dozen residential conversion and ground-up luxury condominium and rental apartment buildings that are not only helping to revitalize but redefine this district.
Perhaps the most notable of these projects is the 50-story ultra luxury condominium development about to rise at 325 Fifth Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets.
(...)
Other developments that are about to shape the new SoFi (South Fifth Avenue) corridor include condo conversion projects at 225 Fifth Avenue, 180 Madison Avenue (at 33rd Street), 99 Madison Avenue (at 30th Street), 10 East 29th Street and new ground-up residential construction at 45 East 30th Street. A new luxury rental apartment building The Magellan, at 35 West 33rd Street, recently opened.
10 July 2005, New York Times, Real Estate, Section 11, pg. RE1:
Greetings From SoFi, N.Y.C.
By NADINE BROZAN
SANDWICHED between Murray Hill and Chelsea, Madison Square Park and Bryant Park, the area straddling the spine of Fifth Avenue from about 26th Street to 38th Street has, until now, had no image, no patina, no label.
''We have jokingly called it 'NoFlaWeMu,''' said Adam R. Rose, president of Rose Associates, which is considered a pioneer in residential construction in the area. His acronym, he explained, stands for ''North of Flatiron, West of Murray Hill.'' Not entirely facetiously, others have suggested North Flatiron and ''SoFi,'' for South Fifth Avenue.
There is a SoFi in Miami, where it means "South of Fifth Street."
http://www.greatgridlock.net/NYC/nythr-170.html
ID# 170.2 (reply to #170.1) - 29 July 2000
Neither, in fact.
The name "flatiron" was given to the Fuller Co. Building at Fifth and 23rd simply due to its triangular plan shape, no general stylistic term there.
Flatiron/Fuller is located in the Madison Garden Park area, not SoHo, although the area south of Flatiron is unofficially dubbed (by some) as SoFi (South of Flatiron). ED
http://www.curbed.com/archives/2005/02/15/oh_sofi_you_so_fine.php
Oh Sofi, You So Fine
Tuesday, February 15, 2005, by Lockhart
A lot across the street from the Empire State Building at 325 Fifth Ave. has been cleared for a new 41-story residential skyscraper, and the developer is predicting big things for the quasi-depressed South Midtown microneighborhood. Reports Lore Croghan, "'Come back in two years, and this will be a real residential neighborhood,' he said. He's coined a new name for the nabe—SoFi, which stands for 'South Fifth Avenue.'" So Fine!
· Empire Neighbor [NYDailyNews, 3rd item]
http://www.zilbert.com/sofi.asp
South Beach SoFi District - a very special place!
At the very southern tip of South Beach is Miami's hippest and most luxurious neighborhood. It's called SoFi ("so fye") and it means everything "South of Fifth" street. Not only will you find Miami's newest and most unique condos and lofts, but SoFi is home to some of South Beach's greatest restaurants and clubs (Nemo Restaurant, Shoji, China Grill, Opium Garden, Smith and Wollensky, Nikki Beach, Joe's Stone Crabs and others).
27 March 1987, New York Times, pg. C:
A STRIKING addition to the lower Fifth Avenue dining orbit is Sofi, formerly the Fifth Avenue Grill. Richard Lavin, owner of Lavin's on West 39th Street, has taken the soaring yet austere space and imparted an air of warmth and sophistication befitting the alluring new menu. Hand-rubbed blended pastel walls mimic
22 May 1987, New York Times, pg. C
MANHATTAN needs another baffling geographical acronym about as much as it needs a few hundred more T-shirt shops. Try out the latest: SOFI. Stumped? To muddle matters further, SOFI has two meanings: South of Flatiron, and an ambitious new restaurant on Fifth Avenue near 15th Street.
Miami Herald archives
Miami Herald - July 8, 1990 - 13K TRAVEL
SOFI: IT'S THE NEW NEW YORK STATE OF MIND SOFI STANDS FOR 'SOUTH OF THE FLATIRON BUILDING,' A TRIANGULAR SKYSCRAPER IN LOWER MANHATTAN
. NEW YORK -- In an island awash in acronymic and trendy neighborhoods -- TriBeCa, SoHo, NoHo -- the SOFI district is perhaps the least known by name. Yet it's fast becoming one of the best known by place -- an increasingly popular downtown stomping ground. Derived from "South of Flatiron" -- as in the Flatiron Building, Daniel Burnham's landmark 1902 triangular skyscraper -- the SOFI district is an area of roughly two dozen blocks bounded by...
16 February 2005, Real Estate Weekly, pg. 4R:
SoFi set to be Manhattan's next trendy neighbourhood.
(Residential: marketing & brokerage)(South Fifth Avenue corridor)
SoHo, NoHo and Tribeca, better watch out. Here comes SoFi!
The Fifth Avenue corridor from 23rd to 34th Streets, between Fifth and Madison Avenues, is emerging today as one of Manhattan's trendy new neighborhoods. Until recently a "hodgepodge" of commercial buildings, the landscape of the area is now shifting dramatically thanks to a half dozen residential conversion and ground-up luxury condominium and rental apartment buildings that are not only helping to revitalize but redefine this district.
Perhaps the most notable of these projects is the 50-story ultra luxury condominium development about to rise at 325 Fifth Avenue, between 32nd and 33rd Streets.
(...)
Other developments that are about to shape the new SoFi (South Fifth Avenue) corridor include condo conversion projects at 225 Fifth Avenue, 180 Madison Avenue (at 33rd Street), 99 Madison Avenue (at 30th Street), 10 East 29th Street and new ground-up residential construction at 45 East 30th Street. A new luxury rental apartment building The Magellan, at 35 West 33rd Street, recently opened.
10 July 2005, New York Times, Real Estate, Section 11, pg. RE1:
Greetings From SoFi, N.Y.C.
By NADINE BROZAN
SANDWICHED between Murray Hill and Chelsea, Madison Square Park and Bryant Park, the area straddling the spine of Fifth Avenue from about 26th Street to 38th Street has, until now, had no image, no patina, no label.
''We have jokingly called it 'NoFlaWeMu,''' said Adam R. Rose, president of Rose Associates, which is considered a pioneer in residential construction in the area. His acronym, he explained, stands for ''North of Flatiron, West of Murray Hill.'' Not entirely facetiously, others have suggested North Flatiron and ''SoFi,'' for South Fifth Avenue.