By Matthew Monks
Visitors will pass a shoulder-high ribbon of screens broadcasting movie images and digital collages at the new entrance at 37th Street and 35th Avenue in Astoria, Museum Director Rochelle Slovan told a news conference in Manhattan last Thursday. “It's not the liveliest part of town,” she said. “We hope to change that.”An outdoor theater for summer screenings will be another vibrant touch to the 30,000-square foot addition, which begins construction this summer and should wrap up by spring 2008, Slovin said. The five-story expansion, designed by Brooklyn-based Leeser Architecture, will save the museum more than $100,000 a year in storage costs with room for its entire 100,000-piece collection. New gallery space will allow it to show off scores of TV and film relics it has no place for now, such as former NBC nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw's desk and scenic flats from “The David Letterman Show,” Slovin said. A 74-seat theater, additional classrooms, a photo studio and 100,000-square-foot outdoor office for Community Board 1 are also part of the project, Slovin said. The first phase, a $5.3 million renovation of the first floor funded by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, will begin this June. The museum is looking for public and private funds for the second phase, which should get underway next summer, Slovin said. The entire facility will be handicapped accessible and she said admission prices should stay at $10 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and $5 for kids ages 5 through 18. The museum is free Friday afternoons. The museum, which recently dropped the word “American” from its name, opened in 1988 inside the former Famous Players-Laskey studio built in 1920. A museum spokeswoman said the Museum of the Moving Image is just a better name. “No more 'American,' it's just 'Museum of the Moving Image,” said Marjorie Sweeney, the spokeswoman. “Basically it was just shorter.”Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156. By Matthew MonksThe Museum of the Moving Image will have a flashy new entrance evoking the jazzy billboards at Times Square under a $25 million expansion nearly doubling the size of the western Queens landmark, an unveiling of the design last week showed. Visitors will pass a shoulder-high ribbon of screens broadcasting movie images and digital collages at the new entrance at 37th Street and 35th Avenue in Astoria, Museum Director Rochelle Slovan told a news conference in Manhattan last Thursday. “It's not the liveliest part of town,” she said. “We hope to change that.”An outdoor theater for summer screenings will be another vibrant touch to the 30,000-square foot addition, which begins construction this summer and should wrap up by spring 2008, Slovin said. The five-story expansion, designed by Brooklyn-based Leeser Architecture, will save the museum more than $100,000 a year in storage costs with room for its entire 100,000-piece collection. New gallery space will allow it to show off scores of TV and film relics it has no place for now, such as former NBC nightly news anchor Tom Brokaw's desk and scenic flats from “The David Letterman Show,” Slovin said. A 74-seat theater, additional classrooms, a photo studio and 100,000-square-foot outdoor office for Community Board 1 are also part of the project, Slovin said. The first phase, a $5.3 million renovation of the first floor funded by the New York City Economic Development Corporation, will begin this June. The museum is looking for public and private funds for the second phase, which should get underway next summer, Slovin said. The entire facility will be handicapped accessible and she said admission prices should stay at $10 for adults, $7.50 for seniors and $5 for kids ages 5 through 18. The museum is free Friday afternoons. The museum, which recently dropped the word “American” from its name, opened in 1988 inside the former Famous Players-Laskey studio built in 1920. A museum spokeswoman said the Museum of the Moving Image is just a better name. “No more 'American,' it's just 'Museum of the Moving Image,” said Marjorie Sweeney, the spokeswoman. “Basically it was just shorter.”Reach reporter Matthew Monks by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 156.
