March 9, 2006

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	Images courtesy Richard Rogers Partnership

New York City's borough of Queens isn't known for cutting-edge architecture. But its lackluster skyline is now facing a dramatic transformation with a $1-billion mixed-use development designed by Richard Rogers for the Queens-based television and film production company, Silvercup Studios. Plans call for two residential towers, approximately 600- and 500-feet tall, as well as a 526-foot-tall commercial building. The new buildings are to be built along the East River on a six-acre site next to the Queensborough Bridge. The 2. 2 million-square-foot project includes 1,000 units of residential housing, office, and retail space, a riverfront esplanade, a cultural facility and eight new soundstages.

The design of the Silvercup Studios towers, with their distinctive exoskeletons and exposed diagonal cross bracing, reflects Rogers' penchant for displaying buildings' structural and mechanical systems. Silvercup Studios' president, Stuart Suna, who trained as an architect, says that the development's design is partially inspired by the structure of the bridge itself, which is reflected on the buildings bracing, and their proportions. The manner in which the massing of the three of them slopes down complements the bridge's catenary curves he says. The Silvercup project also includes the restoration of the landmark 1892 New York Architectural Terra Cotta Company building, which is situated on the site, and which will be referenced in the design of the riverfront esplanade.

Silvercup Studios chief executive, Alan Suna, who co-owns the facility together with his brother Stuart, says that the recent controversy over Richard Rogers' reported association with the U.K.-based group, Architects and Planners for Justice in Palestine, shouldn't impact Rogers' involvement with Queens project. Several New York officials have urged that Rogers be removed from two publicly-funded projects-the redesign of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan and the master-plan for an esplanade along East River's Manhattan waterfront- because of his reported association with the group. It reportedly has called for boycotting Israeli architects and construction firms. Alan Suna says that he has voiced his concerns to Rogers' office. "We made them good and worried," he says. But he says that he has been assured that there was a misunderstanding about Rogers' position on Israel. "What I understand that this whole thing is going to be cleared up," says Suna.

The new development will be located six blocks west of Silvercup Studios' main production complex, which is the largest full-service film and television production facility in the Northeast. Stuart Suna says that his intention is to create a 24-hour-a-day live, work, leisure facility similar to the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. Another objective is to create a design statement that takes into account the project's location next to one of the city's busiest bridges. "We saw the opportunity of this site, the gateway to Queens and a gateway to Manhattan," says Suna, "so we wanted to have a signature piece of architecture."

The studio expansion is coming at a time when New York City's film and television industry is burgeoning thanks in part to new city and state tax credits and other financial incentives. These lowered the cost of production. Over 250 films were shot in New York in 2005 compared to 202 in 2004 and the number of location shooting days in the city rose 35 percent. Currently, the city's production industry employs 100,000 New Yorkers and contributes $5 billion to the local economy.

Alex Ulam

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