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[wwittman]

hey Fran,

so I'm always curious...

every once in a while, I walk into a room and say "damn it sounds good in here"... a warehouse, a ballroom, a hangar, whatever.

But everytime I find one of these spaces and think of making it into a STUDIO, the first thing designers always say is "well you need to build a room within this room to keep from drivign the neighbours crazy" (and of course to keep the outside sounds out)

but the whole ATTRACTION was the look (often) and sound as it IS.

so, what's the answer?

is there a way to build a building essentially AROUND the existing insides?

[jetbase]

william, the answer is simple & quite cheap. you record until the cops turn up.  

[franman]

Either you go with the first suggestions of you hire a design firm that will be sensitive to what you like about the raw space. We often approach projects that have great vibe and appeal in the raw space and discuss how to "keep" that vibe with the clients, even though we are going to build an entire isolations shell inside the building.

THere are many things we do including use materials that compliment the existing demising conditions, re-introduce brick veneers, stone walls, etc inside live rooms. It's all about maintaning the vibe. The sound can be as live (in a larger room) as you want it to be... The fact of the matter is, it would get quite 'old' trying to record in the warehouse, factory, whatever, WITHOUT some type of 'studio' installations, like iso booth, a control room, you know... the little things...

Seriously, we approach each project as a unique challenge to create something from the raw space whether it's a church on a lake, or a loft looking over Brooklyn and the East River, that compliments the location and serves the clients' needs... and hopefully works within the target budget. If all these variables are compatible with eachother, that's when we have a winning project.

[jfrigo]

wwittman wrote on Sun, 29 October 2006 10:43

but the whole ATTRACTION was the look (often) and sound as it IS. so, what's the answer? is there a way to build a building essentially AROUND the existing insides?

Check out the Allaire Studios project. They built a shell around the big hall. The shell was built to look essentially like the original exterior, and to fit aesthetically into the rest of the structure and surrounding buildings. It looks like it has always been there. This was not a cheap project, however.

[franman]

Not an inexpensive project at all... also check out Barber Shop on the fmdesign website as well as Sound Station 7... These are two projects that come to mind where the interior was driven by the original building "feel" and appearance... Both (BTW) are complete interior floating shells... the finishes are just touches (or large pieces) of the original building materials.

[wwittman]

the Allaire room is a great place, I've worked there.
AND beautiful

same thing with Bryan Adam's Warehouse studios.