Lofts are perhaps the most New York way of living. Airy and spacious, they are the romantic manifestation of the city’s transformation from industrial grit into a chic urban utopia. High ceilings, wide open spaces and cast-iron never go out of style, and here are three of our favorites.

Where: 200 Mercer Street, 2-A
Size: 4 bedrooms/4 bathrooms
Asking: $4,500,000
Listed by: Patrick Mills and Evan Greenberg
This SoHo triplex makes the best use of combining the loft style with a more traditional, townhouse-like layout, creating a common area that is expansive and open but still allows the privacy of a separate floor for bedrooms and an informal media room. What really makes the place special, however, is the third level which simply consists of a large bedroom or office and a huge private outdoor terrace.

Where: 650 Sixth Avenue PH-C
Size: 3 bedroom/3 bathroom/2,134 square feet
Asking: $4,995,000
Listed by: Kirk Rundhaug, Mark Lynch & Ryan Fitzpatrick
The Cammeyer is one of our favorite buildings since it straddles the border of Flatiron and Chelsea, two of downtown’s most dynamic neighborhoods. And this penthouse in the pre-war loft building (which was once the world’s biggest shoe store) is one of its crown jewels. Open space, sun-drenched interiors and top-of-the-line finishes? That’s a given. It’s the two terraces that make this apartment really shine. And the penthouse action is only getting started…

When is a stager not necessary? When an apartment is already a work of art. That’s the case at the massive Flatiron District loft at 32 West 20th Street just listed by CORE’s John Harrison and Kirk Rundhaug. The 4,000-square-foot space was the home and studio of Lenore Tawney, who turned weaving into fine art and helped create the fiber art genre before passing away in 2007 at the age of 100. The Wall Street Journal reports today on Tawney’s live/work studio hitting the market, pointing out that the $3.95 million co-op is an artist’s loft in the truest sense of the term. Who says the best art in the world is only hanging in museums?