LEESER

CULTURAL

Museum of the Moving Image
Astoria, New York
2011

Completed in 2011, the Museum of the Moving Image houses a comprehensive collection dedicated to educating the public about the art, history, technique, and technology of film, television, and digital media. Leeser Architecture’s expansion and renovation of this unique museum allows for the interplay of rich moving image history with innovative technology and cutting edge design.

The visitor enters the building through a portal of semi-transparent, mirrored glass, displaying the museum logo. The lobby is given shape by a surface strategically cut and folded to allow for the projection of moving images. The lobby’s faceted interior indicates access to the major program elements, which begin adjacent to the lobby and move throughout the building, including a 267- seat theater, education center, screening room, changing exhibition gallery, collection storage facility, special events space, and courtyard. The exterior features a second ‘cut and folded’ surface, wrapping the addition in an innovatively designed pattern of triangular metal panels.

The expanded Museum of the Moving Image integrates the existing structure seamlessly with the substantial new addition through a grand hallway which connects the two. It will be an environment where complexity is created from the convergence of imposing, enduring architecture and the fleeting transparency of the filmic image.