BY ROBBIE WHELAN

Should fashionistas have good taste in architecture, too? Designer Marc Jacobs thinks so.

The downtown clothing fashion house founded by Mr. Jacobs spent heavily renovating a ninth-floor showroom at its 72 Spring St. headquarters building to that it reflects a kind of calm, chic modernism that screams new wealth. The design for the space, which was completed last year and will see hundreds of visitors during next month's winter Fashion Week activities, signifies a turning point for SoHo.

The neighborhood has long had a trendy identity: it was transformed by artists and squatters in the 1970s from a gritty industrial ...