Control Room Design in Basement, Layout Suggestions? | John Sayers’ Recording Studio Design Forum archive

Hey All, First off, I can't express how thankful I am for the wealth of knowledge available on this site and the willingness of everyone to share and help selflessly! This is my first post but I have read most of the required reading and many other posts, including Rod's book. Here's my situation: I am building a control room in the basement of my house, more specifically the basement of half of the house that was an addition to the existing structure. You step through a door cut into the foundation of the old house, which steps down into the new basement (bottom of attached picture). The ceiling height of the new section is 8' 1" ( to the bottoms of the 2x10 joists above (which run left to right)) , while the old basement is about 7'. All utilities (water heater, pump, furnace etc.) are in the old section, which is separate from the concrete slab floor of the new section in which I am building. However, the utilities run into the new basement on the left side, limiting the ceiling height there to 7' 2" (to the bottom hvac ducts). Also, there is a beam that extends the length of the room alongside the ducts, even with the bottoms of the ducts. This beam is on the left side of the line and runs inside the edge of the existing small room at the far left corner of the picture, so there is 14' width of the 8ft ceiling height. (did that make any sense?) the beam is supported by a 3" pole pictured in the drawing. additionally there is a 4" pvc pipe ventilating radon out of the foundation pictured in the far right corner. lastly, where the step down into the room is, there is a 1ft x 2ft tall footer of concrete blocks the width of the room, also pictured in the drawing. (which seems like it could be cool as a back wall to the control room stuffed with insulation, if the face were extended up with fabric...)

Image not preserved: trevvahhhsketch.jpg

isolation from the house above is not a big priority, but isolation between the rooms is (what is left of the room will be the tracking room, to be finished later as budget allows). I have used the small room at the top left corner of the drawing as a control room for years, and am sick of the lack of isolation and fighting the room modes in such a small rectangular room. My primary goal, above isolation, is to build a room than I can mix in comfortably and know how things will translate. Ideally I would like to walk through the door into the CR, and then through another door into the live room, but this mean I need to have a clear path between the doors for large speaker cabinets and other things to be loaded in. I would be open to considering other layouts. Isolation from the neighbors is not a concern. I like the idea of soffit mounting a set of speakers (would be krk v8 right now), but it might be something to pursue down the line if it strains the budget. my current budget is $1000 ish but will continue to dump money into it as necessary. I should note that while I dont intend to cut corners, this wont be the last studio I build so i don't need it to be perfect. (I'm cringing saying that, but it's true). heres a link to the sketchup file of the graphic I posted: http://www.rightrightrecording.com/trevvahhhstudio.skp please let me know if I have overlooked anything, I'm sure I have. thanks in advance for your help! layout ideas would be greatly appreciated!