The owners of a film and television production company have embarked on a quest to build a 2 million square foot mixed-use development on the Queens waterfront.

Brothers Alan and Stuart Suma, who own Silvercup Studios, unveiled designs for 350,000 square feet of film and television production space as well as 1,000 apartments, commercial and retail space, and a home for an unnamed cultural institution on a six acre waterfront site just south of the Queensboro Bridge.

The plan to build the mixed-use facility in Long Island City, called Silvercup West, must get approval under city’s land-use process.

Silvercup Studios, whose projects have included the “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City,” is the largest independent film and television production facility in the region. The new project would be an addition to its existing facilities six blocks to the east.

The CEO of Silvercup, Alan Suma, said yesterday that the need for production space in the city continues to grow.

“There is a demand for the enhancement of the creative community here in New York, and in a location like this where they can live, work, and play,” Mr. Suma said. “The new manufacturing business of New York is film and TV production. Right now if we had that space it would be full. We have had to turn away projects because there was no space.”

The designs released yesterday were rendered by British architect Lord Richard Rogers, who is currently working on the expansion of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center and whose previous projects include London’s Millennium Dome and the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

At more than 2 million square feet, the Silvercup project would be considerably larger than the proposed Javits expansion and on the same order of magnitude as the Time Warner Center in Columbus Circle. President Stuart Suma said a project of that size is bound to face challenges before earning city approval. Among the possible challenges are mapping a new city street and relocating the temporary power plants that exist on the site.

“It is a large project for western Queens, but we think western Queens should compete with Jersey City.” Stuart Suma said. “For a real 24/7 community – live, work, and leisure – you need a certain critical mass to make a project successful.”

As part of the uniform land-use review process, over the next seven months the project must be reviewed by the local community board, the president of Queens, the City Planning Commission, the City Council, and the mayor. The project has received Mayor Bloomberg’s support.

The local council member, Eric Gioia, a Democrat, also gave his support to the Silvercup plan.

“This project is another sign that the Queens waterfront is being reborn,” Mr. Gioia said yesterday. “Long Island City is in the midst of an economic, cultural, and residential renaissance, and the presence of Lord Richard Rogers in this project ensures that as the Queens skyline rises, it will do so with grace and splendor.”

The developer said the project would create an estimated 2,200 construction jobs, 3,900 permanent jobs, and 2,500 indirect jobs.