Join us on Wednesday, April 8 for the first event of our 2026 season: architect/artist Rafael Herrin-Ferri, with filmmaker Sean Mowry.
The talk begins at 8 pm at Espresso 77 cafe at 35-57 77th St, Jackson Heights, NY 11372. We invite you to arrive around 7 pm, settle in with a drink and/or food, and grab a seat. Espresso 77 is pleased to offer a happy hour with discounts on draft beer pints, glasses of wine, and wine cocktails till 8 pm.
The evening starts with a screening of Sean Mowry’s short documentary All the Queens Houses, based on Rafael’s book of the same name.
Rafael will then present his new book, All the Queens Gardens, continuing his exploration of the urban vernacular as he shifts his focus to the green spaces that accompany the houses and small multi-family buildings of the “World’s Borough.” As varied and colorful as the façades featured in All the Queens Houses, these spaces introduce an organic, botanical element to the streetscape. Semi-formal lawns in the French and Italian traditions sit cheek by jowl with the improvised arbors of Chinese vegetable gardens, Caribbean-inspired flower gardens, brightly colored Hindu courtyards, elaborate handcrafted water features, life-size replicas of fauna, and countless other displays of idiosyncrasy and cultural diversity. Through its photographs and text, this book paints another portrait—softer and greener this time—of the dynamic and multicultural landscape that is Queens, New York.
A Q&A will follow. Books will be available for purchase.
The event is free, but the purchase of a beverage or food item is strongly requested in support of our venue partner Espresso 77.
Bios
Rafael Herrin-Ferri is a Spanish-born architect and artist based in Jackson Heights, New York. His professional work consists mainly of high-end residential projects in Manhattan while his artistic production is focused exclusively on documenting the multicultural urban vernacular of Queens. In 2017, he exhibited a large selection of photographs at The Architectural League of New York. Four years later, he published his first book: All the Queens Houses: An Architectural Portrait of New York’s Largest and Most Diverse Borough (Jovis, 2021), to critical acclaim. After another four years, he published the companion book: All the Queens Gardens: Everyday Landscaping in New York’s Largest and Most Diverse Borough (Jovis, 2025).
Instagram @allthequeenshouses
Sean Mowry is a filmmaker living in Astoria, Queens. His short documentary All the Queens Houses, which he directed and edited, premiered at DOC NYC in 2025. The project is a photographic exploration of Queens’ unconventional architecture and reveals the borough’s beauty and history through the eyes of an architect. Previously, he worked as an assistant editor on Frontline specials for PBS and as a development manager at NorthSouth Productions, where he developed documentary series that were sold to HBO, Discovery+, and Channel 4.
Instagram @so_wry_mean
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