Engineering the Infrastructure Behind Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth

Transforming a former U.S. Army installation into a major film and television production campus requires more than designing a collection of buildings. Each structure must respond to a different part of the production process—from expansive, column-free soundstages to mill buildings, production offices, storage facilities and supporting spaces.

That variety is at the center of Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth, a master-planned production campus currently under development in Oceanport and Eatontown, New Jersey. Located on the 292-acre former Fort Monmouth Army installation, the project is intended to establish a premier East Coast production destination while bringing new activity to a site that has been largely vacant since the base closed in 2011.

GMS is providing structural engineering for the project, working across approximately 850,000 square feet of new and adapted space. Design began in 2024, construction started in 2025, and substantial completion is anticipated in 2028, with the first studios expected to become operational in summer 2027.

A Campus Built Around Production

Unlike a conventional commercial development, a studio campus encompasses buildings with markedly different structural requirements.

At Fort Monmouth, the program includes two single-soundstage buildings and five double-soundstage buildings, providing a total of 12 stages. The program also includes five two-story steel-framed production support offices adjacent to the five double soundstage buildings. A four-story production office building and four wood-framed bungalows will accommodate office and production functions. The campus also includes a storage building and renovations and upgrades to two existing buildings being adapted to support production.

Beyond the primary buildings, GMS’s structural scope encompasses numerous site structures, including an entrance portal, an N-shaped shade canopy, an electrical substation and site perimeter walls.

The result is a project that requires multiple structural systems and materials to work within a single coordinated campus. Long-span structural steel roof trusses, precast concrete wall panels, conventional steel framing, pre-engineered metal buildings and wood framing are all part of the development, alongside the challenges associated with modifying existing structures.

That breadth is characteristic of large production and industrial-type campuses: the structural solution follows the operational requirements of each building rather than imposing a single system across the entire development.

Creating Column-Free Space on a Massive Scale

Nowhere is that relationship between structure and function more apparent than in the soundstages.

Film and television production requires large, unobstructed interior environments that can be continually reconfigured for different sets and productions. At Fort Monmouth, individual soundstage buildings require column-free spaces ranging from approximately 20,000 to 80,000 square feet.

Providing those spaces required steel roof trusses capable of clear spans of up to 189 feet. The challenge was not simply achieving the span. The roof structure also had to provide the functionality required for production while using material efficiently.

GMS developed dozens of computer models to study different truss configurations and internal rigging options. Each configuration was analyzed under multiple combinations of structural loads required by the governing building code.

By comparing these alternatives, the engineering team could evaluate how changes in geometry and rigging affected structural performance and steel quantities. The final design balanced the operational requirements of the soundstages with the goal of minimizing the amount of structural steel required.

For facilities defined by very large spans, this type of iterative analysis can have implications far beyond the roof itself. Structural efficiency becomes increasingly important as spans grow, making the early evaluation of framing alternatives an important part of designing practical large-volume buildings.

Designing New Uses into Existing Structures

Although much of Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth is new construction, the campus also incorporates same existing buildings.

The McAfee Center, an approximately 90,000-square-foot, two-story former office and research building, is being modified to accommodate production support functions and a screening room.

Adapting the building to its new program required changes to its existing lateral-force-resisting system. Certain cross-bracing members conflicts with the proposed layout and need to be removed and replaced with new bracing.

The intervention is an example of a challenge common to adaptive reuse: an existing structural system was designed around one program, while the new use demands different circulation, space and functionality. Structural modifications therefore have to enable the new program while maintaining the required performance of the building as a whole.

One Campus, Many Structural Challenges

For the GMS team, one of the defining aspects of Netflix Studios Fort Monmouth is the sheer variety of structural engineering contained within a single project.

The soundstages call for long-span steel roof structures and extensive column-free areas. Other new buildings incorporate precast concrete wall panels, conventional steel framing, pre-engineered metal building systems and wood framing. Existing structures require targeted interventions to accommodate new production functions. Below all of them, site conditions necessitated a carefully considered foundation strategy.

 

Taken individually, each is a distinct engineering problem. Together, they form the structural framework for a working production campus.

That framework began becoming tangible when members of the GMS team joined the project’s Phase 1A topping-off ceremony. Anthony Pagnotta represented GMS and alongside members of the broader construction team, signed the final beam before it was erected on the soundstage buildings.

As construction continues, these structures are moving closer to their ultimate purpose: providing the adaptable spaces in which future film and television productions can take shape.

For GMS, the project represents an opportunity to apply structural engineering at an unusual scale and across an unusually diverse collection of building types. More broadly, the redevelopment has the potential to bring new activity and opportunities to the former Fort Monmouth site and strengthen New Jersey’s position as an East Coast center for film and television production.