LONG ISLAND CITY — Men's neckties, loaves of bread and museum light fixtures are just a few things that are being manufactured in the neighborhood, according to a new exhibit opening Thursday.
The exhibit called "Made in LIC" opening at the Falchi Building — a former warehouse that's home to factory spaces for the Doughnut Plant and Juice Press — will explore manufacturing in the neighborhood through photos and diagrams created by a group of architecture students.
"Everyone sees these factories with closed doors," said Nina Rappaport, an architectural historian who led the project. "This exhibition is a way to make it visible; it's a way for people to see what happens behind those closed doors."
She and a group of students from Syracuse University's architecture program in New York City visited and explored 15 different Long Island City factories last year, which they will highlight in the exhibit, she said.
These include Edison Price Lighting in Queensbridge, which makes light fixtures for museum displays and art galleries, as well as Plaxall, a plastics company located near the waterfront in Hunters Point.
Others in the exhibit include Steinway Pianos in Astoria, glass blowers at Michael Davis Glass, Mane Enterprises — which is located in the Falchi Building and makes neckties for stores like J. Crew — and Tom Cat Bakery.
"There's been kind of a boom in baking," in Long Island City in recent years, Rappaport said. "Many of these industries, as you hear, are those related to kind of very urban needs, like design or food, but there are also heavier industries."
She said the neighborhood is well suited for manufacturing because of its base of large warehouse buildings and accessible transportation, meaning workers from across the city can get there easily.
The show is an offshoot of her larger, ongoing project "Vertical Urban Factory," which looks at the roles factories play in cities across the globe.
"The idea of maintaining the factories in the city became very important to me," she said. "There has to be a place for the factory — we need work, we need jobs of skilled and unskilled labors in our cities still, otherwise our cities will become boring and monotone."
"Made in LIC," will be on view at the Falchi Building, located at 31-00 47th St. in Long Island City, from June 25 to Aug. 1. The building is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
