Union Square Loft has been on Broadway since 1994. Not a chain, not a rental company, not a WeWork with lights. One operator who built the room, knows every cable, and has been here since the beginning.
Carlos Montoya is the owner-operator of Union Square Loft since 1994. Former TEDx Bushwick executive producer. Commercial A/V since 1992 — designing systems, operating cinema cameras, running audio, building production environments for some of the most demanding clients in New York.
He started in photography under Addie Passen, one of New York's most prolific commercial photographers, working shoots for every major publisher in the city. His closest collaborator for years was Jim Wilson — Mr. Bill's creator — a master fabricator who approached every problem with the same intensity Carlos brought to his craft.
He grew up in a family devoted to service. His mother built grassroots community organizations in Queens. His parents did missionary work teaching indigenous communities in the Amazon. That background shapes how he runs this room.
Carlos speaks English, Spanish, and Italian. He co-founded a camp in the desert arts community that has run for over seven years. He splits time between NYC and Bergamo, Italy.
In the early 2000s, Carlos built what became the first daylight-loft creative research facility in New York — a natural-light studio purpose-built for qualitative research, focus groups, and video ethnography.
Traditional research suites were clinical: low ceilings, observation rooms, one-way mirrors, fluorescent light. The loft model brought participants into a real environment — natural light, high ceilings, an open floor — and produced more candid, usable responses.
The model was documented publicly as early as February 2008 at lexparkstudio.wordpress.com — before any competitor adopted the concept. It's been the foundation of the research offering ever since.
Today the loft handles production, events, podcast, and research — four services, one operator, one address, 30+ years.
Designed by Griffith Thomas and constructed in 1868 for Arnold Constable & Co. The structure spans 873 Broadway and 15 East 18th Street, joined in 1869. The original cast-iron columns from 1868 are still standing in Suite 408. Windows face 18th Street — the original side of the building, not Broadway.
You show up with your idea. Everything else is already here.