Illegal Living is the story of the building at 80 Wooster Street in New York and the people who lived and worked there. The first of 16 artists' coops started by George Maciunas, founder of the Fluxus art movement, Fluxhouse Coop II spurred the development of SoHo and the spread of worldwide loft conversions. Using archival findsm extensive interviews, architectural expertise, and first-person accounts, the authors reveal the myriad ways that the legal formalities and unavoidable business decisions of a live-work cooperative were shaped on a daily basis. The artists of SoHo, while focused on their art, also built community, participating in the creation of a new form of residential development.