Behind every cultural landmark is a team of builders who turn vision into reality. For The Hip Hop Museum, some of that responsibility falls to Andrew Smith, Project Manager at Pavarini McGovern, and Joe Renna, Senior Project Manager at Pavarini McGovern and acting Lead Superintendent, who have been steering the construction from the outset. Both seasoned professionals with decades of experience, their connection to Hip Hop runs deeper than just blueprints and steel beams—it’s rooted in their personal histories as New Yorkers who grew up immersed in the culture’s soundtrack and spirit.
In this interview with The Hip Hop Museum, we speak with Andrew and Joe about building the world’s largest Hip Hop Museum, the unique challenges they’ve encountered during the construction, their respective histories with Hip Hop culture, and much more!
Adam Aziz: To begin, could you each please introduce yourselves and your respective roles?
Andrew Smith: My name is Andrew Smith with Pavarini McGovern, and I am the Project Manager on The Hip Hop Museum project. I started from the beginning, including the presentation to Rocky (Bucano).
Joe Renna: My name is Joe Renna, and I’m a Senior Project Manager for Pavarini/McGovern, and I’m the acting Lead Superintendent on the project. I started with Andrew at the beginning of the project and the presentation to Rocky.
AA: What were your thoughts when this project first came across your desks?
AS: The idea of working on something like this touched all of us. To be involved in such a project, being New Yorkers and part of the scene here, growing up in the city. Always listening to the music. Whenever I think of Hip Hop, I go right back to LL Cool J with the Kangol hat. To be involved with this project really excited me.
JR: It’s funny that Andrew mentions LL Cool J. During the initial presentation, I mentioned my nickname growing up was Joey Rock because I was in a Rock band and played guitar. I used to do a lot of gigs in Long Island and Queens. I grew up in Queens, but I’m from Brooklyn. I used to go to Georgia Diner in Queens after gigs, and LL would often hang out there. My cousins would hang out with him all the time, and of course, I would say what’s up, and he would always refer to me as Joey Rock, so he gave me my nickname.
It’s like full circle. I always say when we get something across our desks, we can’t count the chickens before they’re hatched – it seemed too good to be true. Andrew had us laughing our ass off in the presentation because he said he wanted this project so his kids would be proud of him.
AA: The Museum will be more than 55,000 square feet. What are some of the unique challenges of working on a project of that size?
AS: I mean there’s good and bad. For me, the good thing is that it’s a virgin space. No one has ever lived it. Worked it. Built in it, so that’s the good part.
The challenges include the logistics of delivery and bringing in equipment. That’s our biggest challenge right now, the ability to bring in large deliveries. Of course, when some of the work was wrapping up, we were still experiencing the aftereffects of COVID, which then affected your lead times and pricing.
JR: That’s well said. We handle jobs ranging from hundreds of thousands of square feet, 55 floors, to small spaces, such as 200, 300, or 400 square feet.
And it’s so funny, we always say like, it’s the small bones you choke on. It’s the small jobs when you have limited space. We have a delivery coming. Where are we going to put it? You know, that guy needs to do work here, but the guy needs to do work up on top of him, and the guy needs to do work below him. So that whole scheduling coordination is the toughest part of the job.
AA: Can you give us a bit more information about each of your respective responsibilities on the project?
AS: As the project manager for The Museum project, we step into each other’s roles to have a cohesive project. Overall, I’m responsible for the build and the financial aspect of the project.
I make sure Joe has what he needs to be successful. I’m providing whatever support he needs and the team needs, including workers showing up to the job site, coordinating materials, overseeing the overall schedule, and maintaining and monitoring the process. I’m like 30,000 feet up, looking down at all the different aspects of the project, and making sure that Joe’s work is successful.
JR: Yeah, and one of the things that makes us complete each other, the yin and yang over here, is that from where I come from, I’ve never been a superintendent. However, where I come from, project managers are more involved with the superintendents, so I’m somewhat accustomed to handling the hands-on tasks that a superintendent would typically perform. And Andrew comes from a similar background, where his role as a PM as well gets more in the weeds on things that a super would do, so we work together and know what to expect from each other. I know his job, so I can help him out. We joke around all the time, like the whole “you complete me” kind of thing.
AS: I like to say I’m the glass-half-full guy, and he’s the glass-half-empty guy.
AA: When you walk into the Museum building every day, does it feel different from other projects?
AS: Overall, the location of the project as well, because I’ve spent all my career down in the financial district, so I’ve worked on the furthest parts south of Manhattan, you know, Wall Street, those areas. This is the first project I’ve done this far up. My guys tease me that I’m getting a nosebleed being this far up. That’s the main part.
JR: I’ve worked in 30 out of 50 states doing retail. I’ve built everything you can imagine: Gucci’s, Banana Republic’s, and Armani’s. I come from a strong Italian background. You’re in the space and you’re gonna build out that space, and it’s like in five years, no matter how beautiful you make it, they’re gonna demo it and it’s gonna be gone. Someone else will be rebuilding it. Then you come here and you’re like, ‘ You know what? ‘ This is gonna stay. This is history. We’re doing kind of like a white box, and then everything inside, like the artwork and artifacts, is gonna tell the story of Hip Hop. It’s going to be here for a long time.
AA: What will it mean to both of you when The Museum opens and you can finally see the finished project?
AS: I’m originally from Jamaica, and to find out that a lot of the influence for the Hip Hop movement basically came from Jamaicans – that’s a big connecting point for me to see. I’d like to see how that integrates within the Museum and, in the future, be able to bring my kids, family, and friends.
Throughout the world, most people have been touched by Hip Hop in one way or another. Whether it’s the way you dress, the way you speak, or the music you listen to. We’ve all been influenced to a degree by Hip Hop. It’s going to be a great experience.
When we first started the project, visitors from Europe came to the building, thinking The Museum was ready to open and looking to enter. That was eye-opening and touching to see the overall impact.
JR: And also, when you build something, any time you walk past that place after you build it, you feel like you’re familiar with it. You feel like there’s a little piece of you that you left there. When we came here, this was our home for a period of time, and we helped build it. And this is gonna be our family forever. Parts of our family will be here. Rocky and his kids, as well as the visitors here. They’re all gonna be part of our family.
