Manhattan Network Building Harlem Media Center
Public Access Service Transforming Firehouse Into Community Youth Facility
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 2/2/2008 1:19:00 PM
Public access service Manhattan Neighborhood Network has initiated renovations on an East Harlem firehouse that will transform the historic edifice into a state-of-the-art community media center.
The 124-year-old, four-story, red brick firehouse at 104th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues will be rebuilt to feature live broadcast and production studios, editing facilities, meeting spaces and a training center for the community’s youth. The 10,000-square-foot building will also offer broadband access and serve as the new headquarters for MNN’s youth channel and programs, currently residing on 59th Street.
MNN, has retained Kostow Greenwood Architects, whose client base includes CNN, MTV, HBO Studio Productions, PBS and NBC, for the project, which is expected to be completed by summer.
The public access network, which has four channels carried by Time Warner Cable and RCN Corp., will work with East Harlem schools and community organizations to provide youth with mentoring and training in media technology at no charge.
“We want to empower local neighborhoods through access to media as well as expand and set up satellite locations throughout Manhattan,” said MNN executive director Dan Coughlin in a statement. “What better way to do this in East Harlem than to take a building that once served the community and restore it to full community use.”
Noted Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer: “I want to thank MNN for bringing this technology and great opportunity to East Harlem, and more importantly to the young people of Manhattan.”
MNN’s community media center may have a new network Harlem neighbor a few years down the road: Major League Baseball, in a development with Vornado Realty Trust, is looking to build a 21-story building on 125th Street as a home to its cable channel, which is slated to throw out its first pitch early in 2009.
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