Davis was a significant project for Nooklyn, a tech-forward real estate brokerage that has long been a great client of mine. It was the biggest building they’d listed to date, with 180 luxury apartments and full suite of amenities, located off a side road in a quickly developing corner of Long Island City where the massive Sunnyside Yard revitalization project is under way. I was brought in to create high caliber imagery for their investor portfolio, in addition to a bulk of images for the real estate listings.

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Subject: 45-57 Davis Street
Client: Nooklyn
Location: Long Island City, Queens, New York City
Project Date: May 6-July 20, 2021
Client Link: 45-57 Davis

Nooklyn came to me with a vision for raising the bar on the imagery they normally use for their most important new developments.

At the time, this represented the largest building Nooklyn had represented, so we set out to produce some stellar imagery both to showcase the building, and as a showpiece for Nooklyn’s own project portfolio.

This shoot involved multiple trips to the city over several months to create images of the building in several stages of completion, including creating imagery of the showrooms, vacant apartments, amenities, hallways, exterior, and the surrounding neighborhood of Long Island City.

Because of the chaotic and rushed nature of real estate in NYC, the shoots often involved just coming to the building to see what is currently ready for photography. Not the ideal setup, but something we were able to make work.

Shoot 1: May 6th

I drove down the city early in the morning so we’d have an abundance of daylight to work with. Due to a miscommunication I thought the building was further along than it was, and that we’d be shooting absolutely everything that day. Turns out it was just that the showrooms had been furnished and they were still being cleaned. So, we used the time to scout and tour the building, then take some rooftop and exterior photos.

For reasons that I forgot to inquire about, there was only a single unit, aside from the showrooms, that wasn't covered in construction paper and debris that day. Maybe it was meant to be one of the first showrooms, or maybe they just wanted one clean standard unit to show off. In any case, I took some quick and simple photos of that one to kick it off.

After that, there was little to do but wait for the showrooms to be cleaned. So, Moiz and I walked down the street to grab some breakfast and coffee at Partner’s Coffee Roasters. I’ve actually been to this location several times thanks to previous trips to the city for my wife’s work, in which she used some Hilton hotel points to stay right around the corner.

After a quick breakfast, Moiz had to take off and I set about wandering the neighborhood to create images for the guide to the area.