| Steiner Studios | |
| Type: | Studio |
| Foundation: | Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Founder: | Douglas C. Steiner[1] |
| Location City: | Brooklyn Navy Yard |
| Location Country: | United States |
| Industry: | Entertainment |
| Products: | Motion pictures, television programs, commercials, photography |
Steiner Studios is a film studio at Brooklyn Navy Yard in Brooklyn, New York City. It is the largest film and television production studio complex in the United States outside Hollywood.[2] Steiner Studios, spread across 50acres, contains 30 soundstages as well as additional support space.
Steiner Studios was founded in 1999,[3] and the first soundstages at the site opened in November 2004. In 2012, Steiner Studios reached an agreement with the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to convert its 20-acre Naval Annex Historic Campus into a media and technology hub; the expansion is projected to be completed in the mid-2020s.[4] In 2020, Steiner Studios announced a new $550 million, 900,000 square-foot project in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.[5]
Most recently, Inventing Anna, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, West Side Story, Tick, Tick...Boom!, and And Just Like That… have been filmed at Steiner Studios.
Steiner Studios is home to thirty soundstages, totaling and making it New York’s largest production facility.[6] There is also an additional of support space, which includes offices, dressing rooms, hair and make-up rooms, wardrobe rooms, mill shops, a spray booth, and prop storage.[7] Office and support spaces have access to satellite uplinks and a high-speed data backbone.
Soundstages are equipped with full grids from 26 to 45 feet, are column-free, sound-insulated, and offer loading and staging areas.[6] Built to accommodate film, high-definition television (HDTV) and digital camera productions, each stage is wired with a minimum of 4,800 amps of power and 50 to 200 tons of cooling. Stages are accessed via 13adj=midNaNadj=mid to 20adj=midNaNadj=mid elephant doors.
Each stage is attached to production and support space, including make-up and dressing rooms, green rooms, storage areas, conference rooms, and offices. In addition to the enclosed building areas, there are assembly and secondary areas for "lay-down" of materials and equipment used in large-scale film projects. The facility features a 100-seat screening room and a full commissary, on-site parking, 24/7 security and lighting and grip equipment services.[8]
In 2003, Douglas C. Steiner began development of what later became New York City's largest television and movie production facility, on 20acres of the Navy Yard.[9] Steiner Studios opened in November 2004.[10] [11] The site initially included a 280000ft2 studio spread across five stages.[12]
An expansion of the facility through renovation of a seven-story building in the Navy Yard, was announced by chairman Douglas Steiner, on February 15, 2007.[13] The studio was the location of the 17th annual Gotham Awards held on November 27, 2007.[14]
In March 2012, Mayor Michael Bloomberg unveiled five new sound stages (a total of) at Steiner Studios.[10] [15] [16] The new sound stages all feature two or three wall cycloramas.[17]
Brooklyn College opened the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema on Steiner Studios' production lot for the fall 2013 semester.[18] It is the first public graduate school of film in New York and is thought to be the only film school in the country located on a working film lot.[19] In November 2013, Carnegie Mellon University announced the creation of the Integrative Media Program at Steiner Studios.
In 2012, Steiner Studios proposed building a media campus at the former site of Brooklyn Naval Hospital.[20] [21] located just east of the existing Steiner Studios lot.[22] Steiner Studios planned to restore the hospital buildings starting in 2017, and restoration was expected to take nearly a decade.[23]
The extant buildings at the hospital included the main building, surgeon's house, quarters 4 through 7, bachelors' and nurses' quarters, carriage houses and stables, the medical supply depot, and the morgue/lumber shed. Steiner proposed to convert these structures into production, post-production, and production support space.[22] The hospital had been listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) in 2014.[24] Steiner Studios' plan calls for the restoration of 15 NRHP-listed buildings at the Brooklyn Naval Hospital campus, but would also demolish some of the NRHP-contributing artifacts to make way for the new facility,[22] Structures with a total floor area of 2700ft2 would be demolished and replaced with landscaped lawn space.[22]
In 2020, Steiner Studios signed a deal to build a new $550 million studio complex at the city-owned portion of Bush Terminal in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, where it would erect a studio of 900000ft2 and eight soundstages.[25] [26]
Steiner Studios benefits from New York's movie production incentive program. Douglas Steiner donated $40,000 to incumbent New York Governor Kathy Hochul’s 2022 campaign. The company spends $10,000 a month on lobbyists.[27]