‘Urgently’ Need Renovation Plan For AMMI

In keeping with the current craze to make over everything in sight, the almost-century-old American Museum of the Moving Image building in Astoria is in line for an urgently needed renovation and expansion to augment its present facilities.

According to a document outlining the extensive project provided to the Gazette:

“The main objective of the renovation is to correct severe deficiencies in the current structure, including heat and humidity levels unsuited to a museum environment; severe water leaks during inclement weather; segregated handicap access and other ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliance issues, [and] inadequate storage, gallery and education spaces.”

The latter improvements are especially important. As the new project plan points out, “Education, for adults and for young people, is at the core of everything the Moving Image does. Thousands of students visit the Museum annually for gallery tours, screenings and discussions.”

Continuing, the project plan points out, “The expansion will allow the Museum to move its valuable collection—the most important such collection in the United States and one of the most significant in the world—to specially designed onsite storage and to significantly increase orientation areas, workshops and classrooms. The renovation and expansion also provide for new digital media exhibition galleries and screening facilities.”

The Museum’s irreplaceable collection is presently stored in Brooklyn at a cost of $120,000 a year. There are plans to create modern, new, environmentally safe storage facilities in a new four-story building in the rear of the present building of the same size, located at 36-01 35th Ave.

The new structure will also include space to accommodate Community Board 1, which AMMI is required to provide under its lease agreement with the city of New York.

The new building will occupy a new rear yard which has been added to the museum property by the city Economic Development Corporation, according to the improvement plan description.

The rear yard was created in 2003–2004 by the demolition of unused studio film storage vaults opened and used when the Army Pictorial Center during World War II occupied space which was originally used by Paramount Studios in the early 1900s.

The new building will be built along the 36th Street property line and will be accessible from 36th Street. The remainder of the rear yard will be landscaped and equipped with a permanent film projection screen. It will be used for outdoor exhibitions and seasonal film presentations. A new student entry will open directly onto the landscaped area. School buses will park along the 37th Street side of the property, allowing for safer entry and exit of school groups than is currently possible.

AMMI, the nation’s only museum devoted to appreciation and understanding of film, television, video and digital media, fulfills its mission through collections, exhibitions, screenings and educational programs. It houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of material objects related to moving images, more than 100,000 items in all.

Its pioneering core exhibition, “Behind the Screen,” utilizes artifacts, artworks, audio-visual material, and interactive experiences to inform visitors about the moving image process and the finished product.

Another of its major features, the Riklis Theater, showcases great movies shown in their original formats in the best available prints. More than 400 films are screened each year.

The museum has retained Leeser Architecture to design the renovation and expansion. It features the four-story extension in the rear of the present building which will contain spaces essential to the museum’s future operations. These include a new student entry, classrooms, a 75-foot screening room, digital media galleries, a cafe, catering kitchen and grand lobby and staircase. The skin of this extension will be made of a “rain screen” metal panel system. The protective qualities of this surface are especially important given the fact that the museum’s artifact collection, with its highly specialized environmental control requirements, will fully occupy the third floor of the extension.

Moreover, because the museum’s subject matter is moving image media, its galleries remain darkened at all times. The skin provides an innovative and dynamic alternative to blacked-out fenestration. The Leeser plan also incorporates an exterior lighting feature on the 35th Avenue facade to be commissioned from an artist specializing in such public works.

Prior to embarking on the current architectural project, the museum engaged Cooper Robertson and Partners to devise a 20-year strategic facilities plan. It included an exploration of possible sites to which the museum might relocate, should an adequate renovation and expansion plan for its current facility not be possible.

The engagement of Leeser Architecture to design and build the proposed extension represents a commitment on the part of the AMMI board of trustees and staff to make every effort to continue to occupy the current building.

The challenge presented to Leeser was to address the serious problems and limitations of the museum facility while creating a new structure that communicates its forward looking mission, especially in the area of digital media. The design is meant to articulate the marriage of historical and cutting edge subject matter which has become the museum’s signature.

Closed and vandalized for 18 years, the museum building, once part of the Paramount Studios and later the Army Pictorial Center, was renovated and opened in 1988.