Alumni Conversations: The Newburgh Cinemabox

Alumni Conversations is a program series supported by the GSAPP Alumni Board that seeks to showcase projects realized through collaboration among GSAPP Alumni from different disciplines. While interdisciplinary work is more common after graduation, we hope to encourage students to begin thinking and working across academic program lines while still at GSAPP, in order to foster these relationships and possibilities earlier.

This Conversation will look at the completion of The Cinemabox in Newburgh, NY. This project was shaped and supported by Amy Shell ‘15 MSAUD, Razvan Voroneanu '15 MSAUD, Naomi Hersson-Ringskog '09 MSUP, Jake Chai '14 MSRED, and Lee Altman '08 MSAUD.

The Cinemabox project began at GSAPP in 2014, when MSAUD students Amy Shell and Razvan Voroneanu proposed Lights Camera Newburgh, a studio project envisioning how the City of Newburgh might harness its growing film and media economy to create equitable civic infrastructure for arts and culture. What began as an academic inquiry has evolved into a built project—a multimedia pavilion that serves as a public gathering space by day and transforms into an open-air cinema and performance platform by night.

Amy Shell, Head of Business Development at Modellus Novus, and Razvan Voroneanu, ODA Director, are co-founders of Common Projects Newburgh, a design initiative based in Newburgh. They are joined by fellow GSAPP alumni Lee Altman ’08 MSAUD, Principal at SCAPE, who first brought the studio to Newburgh and remains a trusted advisor; Naomi Hersson-Ringskog, President of The Fullerton, and a community builder and connector whose Cinemabox collaborations span Newburgh Frost Fest, Archtober, and beyond; and Jake Chai, Managing Partner at Mana Tree Properties, whose Hudson Valley portfolio includes the Foundry renovation and who has given Cinemabox a home at the Shaw Building.

Together, this group traces a shared path from GSAPP to Newburgh—where architecture and urban design become tools for storytelling, cultural equity, and community building.

Funding for this project is made possible from the support of family, friends, co-workers, GSAPP’s Incubator Prize, New York Foundation of the Arts Fellowship, New York State Council of the Arts, The Architecture League, Orange County Arts Council, and Epson America.

Please register below. Lunch will be provided.