MEMBER PROFILE // Niall McKay Lands at 3rd Ward

In the late ‘90s, Niall McKay was a print journalist visiting San Francisco from his native Ireland to cover a conference. His transition to living and working in the States went something like this: “I woke up one morning, looked out the window and saw the Golden Gate Bridge below me and said, ‘Fuck it. I am moving here.’”

McKay spent more than a decade in the Bay Area, where he founded the Emmy award-winning production company Media Factory and created the critically acclaimed, intensely personal documentary feature The Bass Player -- in which he accompanies the return of his jazz musician father home to Ireland. The writer/producer/director is now in the process of relocating to New York, with 3rd Ward—where he uses the co-working desk space, meets clients and edits projects in the Media Lab—as his office.

As a filmmaker, McKay says he gets a kick out of wandering around 3rd Ward and meeting interesting folks (like a guy who does storyboards for HBO shows). Sharing space with photographers, painters, furniture makers and metal gurus makes him feel right at home.

“New York is a larger community,” he says, comparing it to San Francisco, “but it feels smaller for some reason.” (We'd like to think we play a part in that.)

--Cara Cannella