BIG designs New York’s new film village with Robert De Niro

Led by Robert De Niro and designed by Bjarke Ingels Group / BIG, the New York’s film village – dubbed “Wildflower Studios” – will become the first ground-up production soundstage in the city and the first vertical film studio in the world. Sited in Astoria, in the western portion of the borough of Queens, the project will rise seven stories (145 feet), functioning as a combined film, television, production and creative studio complex. It’s a new building perfectly in keeping with the neighborhood’s history, housing the Museum of Moving Image and Kaufman Studios, where films that are cinema milestones were shot, such as Goodfellas and Carlito’s Way.

The building will be clad with precast concrete panels, set at angles that create an animated effect on the façade as the light changes through the day and. With a surface of 775,042 square feet, it will host eleven sound stages and a waterfront esplanade open to the public, while its interior design aims to enhance the creative work providing flexible spaces.

The facility will help to satisfy the more and more growing demand for a big production studio in New York City. “We are excited to […] bring film production back to New York City in a way that has never been done before,” said Bjarke Ingels, “The vertical media production village will be home to storytellers working across all mediums – a three-dimensional hub of collaboration, creativity, and innovation. […] While New York City is no stranger to being the star of many visual stories – the city effectively a character in itself – this first ground-up vertical production stage complex marks a new chapter in the city’s ability to create the stories of our future”.